Publication:

Clinical profile of Guillain Barre syndrome in a tertiary care centre

Background This study was done to know about the clinical profile of Guillain Barre syndrome in a tertiary care centre and to correlate certain clinical features with outcome at discharge and thereby to identify a poor outcome group in early stages.

Methods 33 patients admitted in the medical wards were included in the study based on the diagnostic criteria modified by Asbury. Detailed history and physical examination as per a structured profroma was taken and necessary lab investigations were done including CSF study and electrodiagnostic study.

Results The factors affecting the outcome at discharge were 1. Requirement of mechanical ventilation 2. Features of axonopathy in electrodiagnostic studies 3. Decreased CMAP (<10% of lower limit of normal) 4. Presence of cranial nerve involvement 5. Presence of autonomic involvement.

Conclusion There is a high percentage of Miller Fisher variant of GBS this study. Older age is not found to have adverse effect on outcome at discharge in this study. Axonal variant of GBS is found to have a bad outcome. Requirement of mechanical ventilation was found to be a factor adversely affecting outcome. Cranial nerve involvement and autonomic involvement adversely affects the outcome at discharge.