Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is a rare medical condition that affects the nerves outside the brain and spinal cord. Although it can be frightening because it often causes people to have some type of paralysis, Guillain-Barre (pronounced: GHEE-yan bah-RAY) syndrome is very rare: It only affects 1 or 2 people in every 100,000. Most of the people who do get Guillain-Barre syndrome recover and return to their normal lives and activities.
What Is Guillain-Barre Syndrome?
Experts believe that GBS is an autoimmune disorder. These happen when the immune system, which usually protects us by attacking any invading organisms that may harm the body, mistakes the body’s own cells for foreign material and begins to attack them. Guillain-Barre can affect people of any age, but it becomes more common with increasing age.
The nerves outside the brain and spinal cord are called theperipheral nerves. They transmit signals from our brain to our muscles telling them to move. They also transmit sensory signals (such as touch, pressure, temperature and pain) from our body to our brain. When GBS causes these nerves to be temporarily damaged, the signals are interrupted. As a result, someone with GBS may have weakness or problems moving, or may feel numbness and tingling in the arms or legs.
GBS is rare, but can get serious: If the muscles in the chest are affected, for example, it may interfere with the ability to breathe and require the person to use a ventilator for a while. The good news is that the paralysis that goes with GBS is usually temporary.
What Causes It?
No one knows yet what causes GBS or why it affects some people and not others. GBS is called a syndrome because, like irritable bowel syndrome or other syndromes, doctors diagnose it based on a collection of symptoms.
Although no one knows what causes GBS, scientists do have some theories about the syndrome and why it surfaces in the body. For example, doctors report that more than half of all GBS cases seem to occur after a viral or bacterial infection like those that cause sore throats or diarrhea. Occasionally, minor surgery or something else might trigger the GBS symptoms.
There’s no reason to worry that a typical sore throat or a minor surgery is going to trigger an autoimmune response and lead to GBS, though. Colds, sore throats, and the occasional bout of diarrhea are fairly predictable parts of everyone’s lives; getting GBS, thankfully, is not.
Signs and Symptoms
When GBS does strike, it can progress quickly, with the most severe symptoms taking place as soon as 2 weeks after the first signs appear. The first symptoms, such as weakness or tingling in the legs, can show up within a day. These sensations can then spread to the arms and upper body, and the person may feel increasingly tired. Sometimes, someone with GBS also begins to lose his or her reflexes (for example, the person may not have the knee-jerk reaction that happens when a doctor tests reflexes).
In the most severe cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome, the symptoms continue to increase until certain muscles become completely paralyzed. At this stage, the paralysis can interfere with breathing or swallowing, so a person usually has to go to the hospital. It can be frightening, but even at this stage doctors expect most people to recover completely.
How Is GBS Diagnosed?
As with other medical conditions, doctors rely on a person’s medical history and a physical exam to diagnose GBS. If a doctor suspects GBS, he or she will ask some detailed questions, such as whether the symptoms appear on both sides of the body (which is typical with GBS), whether the symptoms happened quickly and got progressively worse, and whether the symptoms started in the feet and legs and spread to the upper body and arms.
Doctors may also do a few tests to confirm that a patient has GBS, including a spinal tap. Two other tests — an electromyogram (EMG) and a nerve conduction velocity (NCV) test — can figure out how well nerves are sending signals down to the arms and legs.
Source : http://kidshealth.org/
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