Related Experiment Videos
[Relationship between parenteral gangliosides administration and the Guillain-Barré syndrome]
I Conceição1, M Carvalho, M Alves
1Servicio de Neurología, Hospital de Santa Maria, Lisboa, Portugal.
Objective:
We carried out a case a case-control study to analyze the relationship between parenteral gangliosides administration and the Guillain-Barré syndrome.
Patients And Methods:
We retrieved 64 patients with the diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome, and 148 controls. In cases and controls the proportion and 95% confidence intervals (CI) of subject receiving gangliosides, was calculated. The number of patients with the Guillain-Barré syndrome who needed ventilation or died was also calculated.
Results:
Four of 36 patients (95% CI = 81-0.6), over 40 years, received gangliosides prior to Guillain-Barré syndrome. One of these patients was ventilated (95% CI = 25-2) and died. None of the controls less than 40 years old took gangliosides, while from the 108 over 40 (95% CI = 15-4) 9 received gangliosides. None developed signs suggesting Guillain-Barré syndrome. Although gangliosides were more often used in Guillain-Barré syndrome (OR = 1.75), the difference was not significant (95% CI = 4.82-0.69).
Conclusion:
The present work proves that in spite of the association of Guillain-Barré syndrome, with gangliosides intake, there is no statistical difference between this group of patients and control population.