Guillain-Barré syndrome in northwest Greece.

OBJECTIVES

We present the epidemiological and clinical-laboratory features of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in northwest Greece over a 9.5-year period.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We studied all the patients with GBS who were admitted to our neurology inpatient service from January 1996 to May 2005 and compared them with previously published series.

RESULTS

Forty-six patients were hospitalized during this period. The average crude incidence rate was 1.22/100,000 populations per year, and males were more susceptible than females. There was a spring clustering, as 52.17% presented the syndrome during spring. The axonal type of GBS was recorded in 13.04% of the patients. The most frequent presenting symptom was dysesthetic numbness (52.17%). A large number of patients (56.52%) had up to three times the elevation of liver function values that resolved in a few weeks. Most patients had an excellent recovery and no deaths were recorded.

CONCLUSIONS

In our series, there was no difference in the incidence rate and subtypes of GBS but there was a significant seasonality with spring clustering. A transient elevation of transaminases of undetermined etiology was noted in more than a half of our patients. Although seven patients (15.21%) had significant neurologic sequelae, no deaths occurred.