Clinical and pathological study of Guillain-Barré syndrome with treatment-related fluctuations / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the clinical and pathological features of Guillain-Barré syndrome with treatment-related fluctuations (GBS-TRF).Methods Clinical data were obtained from medical records of patients with GBS-TRF during the period 1999 to 2014 in our Hospital.Sural nerve specimens were collected and summarized retrospectively (two cases).Results Eight of 868 cases with GBS had at least one TRF including three chronic hepatitis B patients.The onset of disease was ranged in age from six to 63 years, averaging 34 years.It is more common in men than in women in a ratio of seven to one.Triggering infections occurred in three patients.The initial symptom included weakness of the lower limbs (five cases) and upper extremities (three cases).Sensory symptom was presented in six patients.Five patients had associated respiratory paralysis.None of them had cranial nerve palsy or autonomic dysfunction.The examination of cerebrospinal fluid showed protein and cell separation.Five patients had two attacks, one had three attacks and two had six attacks.The interval between attacks ranged between 14 days and 46 days (mean 23 days).The striking pathologic finding was the presence of sectional selective nerve fiber degeneration (SNFD) with evidence of demyelination.Conclusions Patients with GBS-TRF show similar onset age, preceding infection, cerebrospinal fluid findings, and electrophysiologic characteristics comparing to patients with GBS,while there are more male patients than female patients.SNFD found in sural nerve biopsy reveals ischemic neuropathy, which predicts that injury of arterioles might play an important role in the pathogenesis of GBS-TRF.