Guillain-Barre Syndrome Essay, Research Paper

Guillain-Barre Syndrome, (also called acute idiopathic polyneuritis, and Landry s ascending paralysis) is a disorder in which the body s immune system attacks part of the peripheral nerves, those outside the brain and spinal cord.

Symptoms of this disorder include weakness or tingling in the legs, sometimes the weakness or tingling spread to the arms and upper body. These symptom s then increase in intensity, until the muscles cannot be used at all and the patient is almost totally paralyzed, most patients reach this stage at about two or three weeks after the start. About thirty percent of the patients are often put on a respirator to help with breathing.

Guillain-Barre Syndrome can affect anybody. It can strike at any age and any gender, both are equally prone to it. This syndrome is uncommon but not rare, only about one out of a thousand people get it. There are about 12 cases per million people per year. Severe Guillian-Barre syndrome is life-threading and is fatal in three percent or four percent of cases.

Nobody knows why Guillian-Barre Syndrome strikes some people, and not others. They don t even know what triggers the disease or what sets it in motion. Scientist do know that the body s immune system begins to attack the body, causing autoimmune disease. Unlike other autoimmune diseases, no specific genetic makeup has been discovered which predisposes someone to develop Guillian-Barre syndrome. Usually the cells of the immune system attack only foreign material and invading organisms, but with Guillain-Barre Syndrome the immune system starts to destroy the myelin sheath that surrounds the axons (axons are long, thin extensions of the nerve cells; they carry nerve signals) of many peripheral nerves. Also about two-thirds of these cases the person recalls a viral infection one to six weeks before having Guillian-Barre.

In diseases like Guillain-Barre where peripheral nerves or myelin sheaths are injured or degraded, the nerves cannot transmit signals efficiently. That is why the muscles begin to lose their ability to respond to the brains commands. The brain also receives fewer sensory signals from the rest of the body, resulting in an inability to feel textures, heat, pain, and other sensations. Alternately, the brain may receive inappropriate signals that result it tingling or pain.

When Guillain-Barre is preceded by a viral infection, it is possible that the virus has changed the nature of the cells in the nervous system so that the immune system treats them as foreign cells, and will try to get ride of them. It is also possible that the virus makes the immune system itself less discriminating about what cells it recognizes as it own, allowing some of the immune cells, such as certain kinds of lymphocytes, to attack the myelin.

The signs and symptoms of the syndrome can be varied, so doctors may, on some occasions, find it difficult to diagnose Guillain-Barre in its early stages. There are some things that they look at to tell if its Guillian-Barre, like, if the symptoms occur on both sides of the body, ( most common with Guillian-Barre) and the quickness in which the symptoms appear. Also when Guillian-Barre is present, reflexes such as knee jerks are usually lost, because the signals traveling along the nerve are slower. A nerve conduction velocity test can also give a doctor clues to aid the diagnosis. Also in Guillian-Barre patients the cerebrospinal fluid that bathes the spinal cord and brain contains more protein than usual, and a doctor may decide to do a spinal tap to drain the cerebrospinal fluid from the spinal column. To confirm the diagnosis, a lumbar puncture to find elevated fluid protein and electrical test of nerve and muscle function may be done. Five percent to ten percent of cases occur after an operation.

There is no known cure for Guillian-Barre syndrome. However there are therapies that lessen the strength of the syndrome and accelerate recovery in some patients. Also two kinds of treatments have been shown to improve the rate of recovery in people with moderate to severe Guillian-Barre syndrome. These are intravenous gamma globulin injections, and a washing of the blood known as plasmapheresis, which removes proteins, including antibodies, from the bloodstream.

Guillian-Barre syndrome can be a devastating disorder because of its sudden and unexpected arrival. Also recovery is not usually quick, because you don t even feel the greatest amount of weakness until a few weeks after the first symptoms occur. The recovery period may be as little as a few weeks or as long as a few years. Fifty to ninety percent will recover completely. About 10 percent to 20 percent of patients will have a relapse at some time. And five percent to fifteen percent will have serious, long term disability. Another 5 percent develop a chronic form of the disorder and don t recover from it.