Cytomegalovirus infection and Guillain-Barré syndrome: the clinical, electrophysiologic, and prognostic features. Dutch Guillain-Barré Study Group.

1: Neurology. 1996 Sep;47(3):668-73.Links

Comment in:

Neurology. 1997 Nov;49(5):1472-3.

Cytomegalovirus infection and Guillain-Barré syndrome: the clinical, electrophysiologic, and prognostic features. Dutch Guillain-Barré Study Group.

Visser LH, van der Meché FG, Meulstee J, Rothbarth PP, Jacobs BC, Schmitz PI, van Doorn PA.

Department of Neurology, University Hospital Dijkzigt, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is usually preceded by infections, in particular cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Campylobacter jejuni infection. We studied the clinical and electrophysiologic features of 20 CMV-associated GBS patients and compared the findings with earlier established data of C. jejuni-related GBS patients (n = 43) and of GBS patients without these infections (n = 71). The patients all participated in the Dutch GBS trial in which we compared the effect of intravenous immune globulins and plasma exchange. We demonstrate that CMV-related GBS patients have a different clinical pattern in comparison with the other two GBS groups. They are significantly younger, initially have a severe course indicated by a high frequency of respiratory insufficiency, and often develop cranial nerve involvement and severe sensory loss. This is in contrast to C. jejuni infection, which is associated with motor GBS. Both infections are associated with delayed recovery compared with the GBS patients without these infections.

PMID: 8797462 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]