Manifestation of Guillain-Barre Syndrome After Infection with SARS-CoV-2 versus Other Prior Infections

Abstract

Guillain-Barré Syndrome (GBS) is a rare, autoimmune disease generally triggered by an abnormal immune response to a viral or bacterial infection. Typically, this aberrant immune response targets the nerves, leading to poor nerve signal conduction and damage and manifesting in a variety of physical symptoms. These physical symptoms range from muscle weakness to full paralysis; this intense variability of GBS is not well understood nor comprehensively classified. Our first objective was to provide a better classification method for GBS symptom presentation, and here we present the most specific symptom dependent GBS outcomes severity scale to date. Additionally, the rise of COVID-19 caused an increase in patients who developed GBS after infection with SARS-CoV-2. We applied our novel scoring assessment to 109 total cases of GBS, either induced after SARS-CoV-2 infection or not, to determine if the severity level of the disease manifestation depended on SARS-CoV-2. The results from this analysis show there is no significant difference between the severity of GBS for patients with GBS associated with COVID-19 and GBS without COVID-19 association.