Sequence typing confirms that Campylobacter jejuni strains associated withGuillain-Barre and Miller-Fisher syndromes are of diverse genetic lineage,serotype, and flagella type

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and Miller-Fisher syndrome (MFS) are correlat ed with prior infection by Campylobacter jejuni in up to 40% of cases. Nucl eotide sequence-based typing of 25 C. jejuni isolates associated with neuro pathy permitted robust comparisons with equivalent data from approximately 800 C. jejuni isolates not associated with neuropathy. A total of 13 geneti c lineages and 20 flaA short variable region nucleotide sequences were pres ent among the 25 isolates. A minority of isolates (4 of 25) had the flaA sh ort variable region nucleotide sequences that were previously proposed as a marker for GBS-associated isolates. These 4 isolates probably represented the Penner serotype 19 lineage, which has been proposed to have an associat ion with GBS.