Time frequency of Guillain-Barre syndrome in northwest of Iran

Abstract

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is an immune mediated polyradiculoneuropathy usually proceeded with respiratory and gastrointestinal infections 3 to 5 days prior to neurologic signs appearance. It seems that GBS seasonally outbreaks in our region. This study was aimed to evaluate seasonal relationship of clinical and epidemiological findings of GBS in hospitalized patients in Imam Khomeini hospital in the period of 1992-2004. One hundred and seventy five cases of hospitalized patients diagnosed with GBS were studied considering following factors: age, sex, events prior to the onset, seasonal incidence, clinical patterns, and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein, electrodiagnosis and mortality rate in patients. The age distribution was in the range of 2-83 years with the mean age of 38 years and male to female ratio was 1 to 2.3. Seasonal onset was spring in 21.1% of the cases, summer in 26.6%, fall in 28% and winter in 24.6%. There was no significant epidemic relation with the seasons of the year. The mortality rate was 8.6% during admission time. There was no significant relation between the season of onset of the disease and mortality rate.