TITLE:
Seasonal, Age & Gender Variation of Guillain Barre Syndrome in a Tertiary Referral Center in India
AUTHORS:
Geetanjali Sharma, Sushma Sood, Sudhir Sharma
KEYWORDS:
EMG; Epidemiology; Guillain-Barre Syndrome; Neuroepidemiology
JOURNAL NAME:
Neuroscience and Medicine,
Vol.4 No.1,
March
6,
2013
ABSTRACT:
Background: Seasonal
variation & gender preponderance have not been adequately studied in
Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). University
of Health Sciences, Rohtak is the tertiary referral facility for a large part
of North West India. We conducted a prospective study to investigate
differences in GBS incidence between males and females & across different
seasons of the year. Methods:65 clinically
diagnosed GBS patients, aged 5 - 70 years, referred for nerve conduction, Fwave & EMG studies for 3 years. Results: 64.61%
were males while 35.38% were females. Maximum patients were in the age group 5 - 20 years (46.15%). The highest incidence of GBS (41.53%)
were seen in the summer months; 19 (29.23%) in the spring season, 11 (16.92%)
in winter season and 8 (12.30%) in rainy season. 5 patients had diarrhoea while
12 patients had flu like syndrome 1 - 2 weeks before the onset of GBS. Conclusion: The
peak seasonal clustering noted by us in the summer months was consistent
significantly with other Asian studies. The age and sex distribution of GBS in
our series, which showed children & minor preponderance with peak incidence
in 5 - 20 years age
followed by another in the age group 21 - 40 years, is different from most studies which
report a second peak after 50 years of age.