Complete recovery of an aged patient with Guillain-Barré syndrome associated with multiple IgM anti-ganglioside antibodies.

In this report we describe a 72-year-old woman who had cytomegalovirus infection-related Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) associated with multiple immunoglobulin M (IgM) anti-ganglioside antibodies. She became tetraplegic with respiratory failure, but recovered completely after intravenous immunoglobulin therapy and plasmapheresis. The serum contained high-titer IgM antibody activities to several gangliosides with disialosyl residues (GD1b, GD3, GT1b, GQ1b, and GT1a) and GD1a. These antibodies are often found in sera from patients with chronic sensory ataxic neuropathy, but they occur rarely in GBS.