BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Clinical symptoms and laboratory indices for acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP), a variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome, and acute-onset chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (A-CIDP) were analyzed to identify factors that could contribute to early differential diagnosis.

METHODS

A retrospective chart review was performed on 44 AIDP and 44 A-CIDP patients looking for any demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations or laboratory parameters that might differentiate AIDP from acutely presenting CIDP.

RESULTS

In Guillain-Barré syndrome patients (N = 63), 69.84% (N = 44) were classified as having AIDP, 19.05% (N = 12) were found to have acute motor axonal neuropathy, 6.35% (N = 4) were found to have acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy, and 4.76% (N = 3) were found to have Miller Fisher syndrome. Serum uric acid (UA) was higher in A-CIDP patients (329.55 ± 72.23 μmol/L) than in AIDP patients (221.08 ± 71.32 μmol/L) (p = 0.000). Receiver operating characteristic analyses indicated that the optimal UA cutoff was 283.50 μmol/L. Above this level, patients were more likely to present A-CIDP than AIDP (specificity 81.80%, sensitivity 81.80%). During the follow-up process, serum samples were effectively collected from 19 AIDP patients during the rehabilitation phase and 28 A-CIDP patients during the remission stage, and it was found that UA levels were significantly increased in A-CIDP (remission) (298.9 ± 90.39 μmol/L) compared with AIDP (rehabilitation) (220.1 ± 108.2 μmol/L, p = 0.009).

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that serum UA level can help to differentiate AIDP from A-CIDP with high specificity and sensitivity, which is helpful for early diagnosis and guidance of treatment.