Sensory Guillain-Barre syndrome

Objective: To report eight cases of sensory Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). Background: The concept of sensory equivalent to ascending paralysis of GBS was raised in 1958, and the diagnostic criteria for a sensory loss and are flexia variant of GBS were proposed in 1981. However, clinical cases meetin g these criteria have been relatively scarce. Methods: During a 13-year per iod between 1986 and 1999, the authors collected eight cases of an acute se nsory demyelinating neuropathy that met most of the proposed diagnostic cri teria of a sensory variant of GBS. Results: In all patients, sensory neurop athy was sudden at onset and peaked to maximal deficit within 4 weeks. In f ive (63%) cases, there was an antecedent viral illness. All patients had ob jective sensory loss and diminished or absent reflexes. None showed any mus cle weakness. In all four patients in whom the spinal fluid was examined du ring the first 4 weeks, there was albuminocytologic dissociation. All of th e patients had electrophysiologic evidence of demyelination in at least two nerves. Demyelination was demonstrated in motor nerve conduction in seven patients and in sensory nerve conduction in one, indicating that motor nerv e conduction studies were the key for the diagnosis of demyelinating neurop athy. All patients had sensory nerve conduction abnormalities in at least o ne nerve. Three patients responded to immunotherapies. All had a favorable outcome, with a monophasic course of disease and no sign of relapse. Conclu sion: The current study confirms the existence of sensory GBS.