title: Increased incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome postpartum.
abstract: We studied the relation between pregnancy and Guillain-Barré syndrome in the Swedish female population ages 15-49 years during the period 1978-1993. Person-based information from the national Hospital In-patient Registry on patients discharged with a diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome was linked to data on pregnancy and delivery from the Swedish Medical Birth Registry. We validated coded Guillain-Barré syndrome diagnoses and the time periods of clinical onset for patients hospitalized with Guillain-Barré syndrome during pregnancy or during the first 90-day postpartum period. We compared the incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome in women in different exposure categories related to pregnancy with that in women neither pregnant nor in the 90-day postpartum period. Poisson regression analysis yielded age-adjusted rate ratios of 0.89 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.52-1.53] for pregnant women, 1.37 (95% CI = 0.64-2.91) for women during the first 90 days, and 2.93 (95% CI = 1.20-7.11) during the first 30 days after delivery. Our results indicate that the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome increases after delivery, particularly during the first 2 weeks postpartum.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurology, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Q
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: G X
authors.initials: GX
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fredrikson
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Link
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: de Pedro-Cuesta
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008875:Middle Aged; D011129:Polyradiculoneuropathy / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D049590:Postpartum Period; D011247:Pregnancy; D011248:Pregnancy Complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors