Seasonal, Age & Gender Variation of Guillain Barre Syndrome in a Tertiary Referral Center in India

Background: Seasonal variation & gender preponderance have not been adequately studied in Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS). University of Health Sciences, Rohtak is the tertiary referral facility for a large part of North West India. We conducted a prospective study to investigate differences in GBS incidence between males and females & across different seasons of the year. Methods:65 clinically diagnosed GBS patients, aged 5 - 70 years, referred for nerve conduction, Fwave & EMG studies for 3 years. Results: 64.61% were males while 35.38% were females. Maximum patients were in the age group 5 - 20 years (46.15%). The highest incidence of GBS (41.53%) were seen in the summer months; 19 (29.23%) in the spring season, 11 (16.92%) in winter season and 8 (12.30%) in rainy season. 5 patients had diarrhoea while 12 patients had flu like syndrome 1 - 2 weeks before the onset of GBS. Conclusion: The peak seasonal clustering noted by us in the summer months was consistent significantly with other Asian studies. The age and sex distribution of GBS in our series, which showed children & minor preponderance with peak incidence in 5 - 20 years age followed by another in the age group 21 - 40 years, is different from most studies which report a second peak after 50 years of age.