Campylobacter jejuni infection and Guillain-Barré syndrome

Q: 54 years old male with no past medical history is admitted to ICU with shortness of breath, requiring intubation. Further workup led to the diagnosis of Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS). Wife reported patient having severe viral diarrheal illness four weeks ago. Patients who develop Campylobacter jejuni infection-related Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) tend to recover quickly and have better outcomes.

A) True 

B) False

Answer: B

A quarter of patients who develop GBS are found to have C. jejuni gastroenteritis within 12 weeks of its onset. Overall, two-thirds of patients have some kind of antecedent respiratory tract or gastrointestinal infection. The risk of developing GBS within eight weeks of a symptomatic C. jejuni infection is about 100-fold higher!

Unfortunately, Campylobacter-associated GBS tends to have a worse prognosis, followed by a slower recovery and higher residual neurologic disability.

#ID

#neurology

References:

1. Rees JH, Soudain SE, Gregson NA, Hughes RA. Campylobacter jejuni infection and Guillain-Barré syndrome. N Engl J Med 1995; 333:1374.

2. Leonhard SE, van der Eijk AA, Andersen H, et al. An International Perspective on Preceding Infections in Guillain-Barré Syndrome: The IGOS-1000 Cohort. Neurology 2022; 99:e1299.

3. McCarthy N, Giesecke J. Incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome following infection with Campylobacter jejuni. Am J Epidemiol 2001; 153:610.

4. Griffin JW, Li CY, Ho TW, et al. Pathology of the motor-sensory axonal Guillain-Barré syndrome. Ann Neurol 1996; 39:17.