Recurrent Guillain-Barré syndrome presenting as pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant with three species of ganglioside antibodies:case report

Abstract Background Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is generally considered to be monophasic, and recurrent GBS (RGBS) is very rare. Pharyngeal-cervical-brachial (PCB) is a less common variant of GBS. There have been no cases reported describing RGBS showing different phenotype presenting as PCB varia...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Haihui Luan, Peng Zhang, Mingqing Zhen, Mei Li, Xiaowei Wang, Jianghua Xu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMC 2022-11-01
Series:BMC Neurology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-022-02955-0
Description
Summary:Abstract Background Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is generally considered to be monophasic, and recurrent GBS (RGBS) is very rare. Pharyngeal-cervical-brachial (PCB) is a less common variant of GBS. There have been no cases reported describing RGBS showing different phenotype presenting as PCB variant with three species of ganglioside antibodies. Case presentation  We report a case of a 77-year-old female patient with GT1a, GD1a and sulfatide-seropositive PCB-GBS after prior episode of AMAN-GBS 13 years ago. Our patient showed oropharyngeal and cervicobrachial weakness associated with areflexia in the upper limbs and partially improved after 5 days of IVIG and physiotherapy. Conclusion This study reports a rare case characterized as recurrent GBS after a long period, showing different phenotypes in different episodes with three different species of ganglioside antibodies. Further studies are required to obtain better understanding of RGBS and PCB variant.
ISSN:1471-2377