The relationship between serum cystatin C levels and Hughes motor scale in Guillain-Barré syndrome

OBJECTIVES: To study the clinical features of Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS) and the relationship between serum cystatin C (cysC) levels and Hughes motor scale (HMS) in GBS. METHODS: One hundred and one GBS patients between January 2017 and January 2020 were reviewed retrospectively. Their epidemiological characteristics, clinical manifestations and auxiliary examinations were assessed. The HMS was used to measure the peak deficit. The influencing factors of GBS severity were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The serum cysC levels were significantly higher in the severe group than in the mild group [0.98 (0.85-1.20) vs. 0.81 (0.76-0.95), p=0.004], and there was a positive correlation between serum cysC levels and HMS in GBS patients (r=0.376, p=0.001). On multivariate analysis, respiratory muscle palsy (p=0.003), time to peak deficit (p=0.017), serum cysC (p=0.045) and hyponatremia (p=0.015) were independent risk factors for a poor functional outcome (HMS>3). Combining serum cysC and respiratory muscle palsy was more valuable for assessing disease severity than respiratory muscle palsy alone (AUC 0.863 vs. 0.787, p=0.001). CONCLUSION: Serum cysC was an independent risk factor in GBS, and positively correlated with HMS. It might be used to assess the severity of GBS with other negative prognostic factors.