Pulmonary Involvement in Patients with Guillain-Barré Syndrome in Subacute Phase

To evaluate the pulmonary function in Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) patients in subacute phase and find clinical correlates of pulmonary dysfunction.

This was a single-center, prospective, cross-sectional, hospital-based study in GBS patients performed in Department of Neurological Rehabilitation at a tertiary care institute. Clinical examination for pulmonary function was done by measuring chest expansion. The pulmonary function tests were carried out by Spirometry kit Microquark Cosmed, Italy. Fatigue was assessed by Fatigue Severity Scale, disability status by Hughes Disability Scale (HDS), and muscle weakness by Medical Research Council sum scores.

Statistical analysis was performed by Stata 11. The significance of P value was adjudged against an alpha of 0.05.

Twenty-eight patients were included with 17 (61%) men and mean age of 31 years. Median duration of symptoms was 16.5 days. There were 10 (36%) demyelinating and 18 (64%) axonal variants. Twenty-six (93%) patients scored more than 2 on HDS. All study participants reported fatigue. Twenty-two (78.6%) patients had chest expansion of <2.5 cm. Spirometry showed restrictive pulmonary dysfunction in 23 (79%) patients. Significant correlation was found between abnormal pulmonary function test and chest expansion (P = 0.003).

Pulmonary dysfunction in GBS is common even during subacute phase. It needs to be identified and managed appropriately for better clinical outcome.