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.