Guillain-Barre Syndrome: Case Study and Literature Review

Abstract

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is an acute demyelinating inflammatory mediated polyneuropathy mediated by the immune system that leads to generalized flaccid paralysis. Most GBS cases are preceded by viral or bacterial infections of the respiratory or gastrointestinal tract, developing an aberrant response that causes autoantibody formation and complement and cytokine activation. Because it is a rare disease, diagnosis is often slow and may worsen the clinical picture. The patient should be evaluated by a multidisciplinary team and the treatment of choice is intravenous human immunoglobulin. We report a case in which the patient had several symptoms resulting from GBS, probably developed by the previous infection, but only had the disease diagnosed late, leading to a worsening of her clinical condition and compromising her quality of life. Since 1976, several studies have established a causal relationship between GBS and vaccines, especially Influenza A, but the pathophysiological mechanism remains unknown. However, it is known that there is a greater chance of GBS development due to Influenza a virus infection than vaccination. Studies reveal that there are environmental and genetic components that may influence susceptibility to disease. However, there is little research on the polymorphism of immune response genes and their influence on the development of the syndrome. Some cases of involvement of people belonging to the same family have been reported in the literature, thus demonstrating that the presence of genetic components influencing the predisposition to GBS cannot be ruled out.