Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Case Reports
. 2015 Jan-Mar;10(1):64-6.
doi: 10.4103/1817-1745.154358.

Guillain-Barre syndrome in acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Causal or coincidental

Bharat Bhushan  1 , Amita Bhargava  1 , Gaurav M Kasundra  1 , Khichar Shubhakaran  1 , Isha Sood  2
Affiliations
Case Reports

Guillain-Barre syndrome in acute lymphoblastic leukemia: Causal or coincidental

Bharat Bhushan et al. J Pediatr Neurosci. 2015 Jan-Mar.

Abstract

Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is rarely reported in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and may be difficult to differentiate from vincristine induced neuropathy. Only few case reports highlighted GBS with ALL. We report a 10-year-old male child who was a diagnosed case of ALL since 3 month on chemotherapy. At 3(rd) week of chemotherapy, he developed rapidly progressive ascending motor quadriparesis over 2 days. Clinical and electrophysiology revealed acute motor axonal neuropathy (AMAN) variant of GBS. He was treated with intravenous immunoglobulin (2 g/kg) without discontinuing chemotherapy. Complete recovery took 12 weeks despite immunotherapy, and it was corroborating to slow remission. We concluded that AMAN variant is usually present in B-cell type ALL, may be causal for GBS and it takes 6-16 weeks to complete recovery which may correspond to remission of ALL. However, it needs to be studied. We also present a meta-analysis of previously reported cases of GBS in ALL.

Keywords: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia; Guillain–Barre syndrome; chemotherapy; children.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aral YZ, Gursel T, Ozturk G, Serdaroglu A. Guillain-Barré syndrome in a child with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Pediatr Hematol Oncol. 2001;18:343–6. - PubMed
    1. Brigo F, Balter R, Marradi P, Ferlisi M, Zaccaron A, Fiaschi A, et al. Vincristine-related neuropathy versus acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. J Child Neurol. 2012;27:867–74. - PubMed
    1. Guiheneuc P, Ginet J, Groleau JY, Rojouan J. Early phase of vincristine neuropathy in man. Electrophysiological evidence for a dying-back phenomenon, with transitory enhancement of spinal transmission of the monosynaptic reflex. J Neurol Sci. 1980;45:355–66. - PubMed
    1. Moudgil SS, Riggs JE. Fulminant peripheral neuropathy with severe quadriparesis associated with vincristine therapy. Ann Pharmacother. 2000;34:1136–8. - PubMed
    1. Pal PK. Clinical and electrophysiological studies in vincristine induced neuropathy. Electromyogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1999;39:323–30. - PubMed

Publication types