[Relations between autonomic dysfunction and skin sympathetic nerve activity in Guillain-Barré syndrome: a...

We investigated the skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA) in 4 patients with Guillain-Barré syndrome (CBS) using microneurography. All patients showed transient hypertension, tachycardia and palmoplantar hyperhidrosis in the acute phase of illness, but these symptoms disappeared in the chronic phase. Microelectrode recordings of SSNA performed at the median nerve in the acute phase when hypertension, tachycardia and palmoplantar hyperhidrosis were present and then in the recovery phase. In the acute phase, the level of SSNA was significantly higher than the control levels obtained from 16 healthy subjects, while in the chronic recovery phase the SSNA showed no significant difference from that of the control. The correlation between the SSNA and corresponding changes in the sweat rate and skin blood flow was kept constant both in the acute phase and chronic phase. These findings suggest that the sympathetic nerve dysfunction observed in the acute phase of GBS is partly the consequence of hyperactivity of the skin sympathetic nerve.