[Epidemiology of Guillain-Barré Syndrome]

The epidemiologic features of the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) have been reported from North America, England, Iceland, and Norway before 1979. The population incidence rates of GBS fulfilling the NINCDS (National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke) criteria in USA, Canada, Italy, Spain, and Sweden ranged from 0.62 cases to 2.66 cases per 100,000 person-years across all age groups, with a relative risk of 1.78 for males. GBS incidence increased by 20% for every 10-year increase in age. In Japan, the incidence of GBS was 1.15 per 100,000 person-years. Males were affected 1.5 times more frequently than females. The average age of patients with GBS was 39.1 ± 20.0 years, which is lesser than that in North America and Europe. The relative ratio of the occurrence of Fisher syndrome among patients with GBS was higher than that in other Asian countries.