Relationship Between Acute Phase Reactants and Disability in Guillian-Barré Syndrome During the COVID-19 Pandemic

BACKROUND: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an immune-mediated disease that affects the peripheral nervous system and may occur after some bacterial-viral infections. AIM: The aim of this study is to determine and compare the epidemiological, clinical and laboratory characteristics of the patients followed up in our clinic with the diagnosis of GBS in the 15 month periods before and after March 2020. At the same time, we aimed to examine the importance of these markers as prognostic indicators by investigating the relationship of D-dimer, CRP, albumin and transferrin levels with Hughes functional grading scale score (HFGSS). MATERIAL AND METHODS: The medical files of the patients who were followed up with the diagnosis of GBS between December 2018 and May 2021 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into groups as pandemic, pre-pandemic, post-COVID-19 and non-COVID-19. Epidemiological and clinical characteristics of GBS patients and plasma D-dimer, serum albumin, CRP and transferrin levels were recorded. RESULTS: No significant difference was found between the pandemic and pre-pandemic periods in terms of age, gender, GBS subtype, seasonal distribution and treatment characteristics of GBS patients. PostCOVID-19 GBS patients had significantly higher HFGSS both at admission and at discharge (p <0.05). In post-COVID-19 GBS patients good-excellent negative correlation between transferrin and albumin levels and HFGSS at hospital admission and discharge, positive correlations with CRP levels were observed. CONCLUSION: Post-COVID-19 GBS patients had worse HFGSS at both admission and discharge. CRP was positively correlated with HFGSS whereas transferrin and albumin showed negative correlation with HFGSS.