title: Incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome in Sweden 1996.
abstract: We describe the incidence of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) in Sweden in 1996. Information of incident GBS patients was mainly collected by a multicentre network of 18 neurologists prospectively monitoring a general population with 4.48 million inhabitants across the country and complemented with data from the national hospital in-patient registry. GBS diagnoses for all patients were validated by neurologists. While 53 patients with GBS were identified by the network neurologists from the study population, the other 20 GBS patients were recognized after carefully reviewing the registered data. There were 44 (60%) male patients and 29 (40%) female patients and the mean age at onset for all patients was 48.6 (SD 24.3) years. The GBS incidence, age-adjusted to the European standard population, was 1.51 (95% CI 1.18-1.90) per 100 000 person-years in 1996, higher in males and increased with age. When compared with selected studies, the GBS incidence in Sweden is moderately high, and the variation of GBS incidence in Europe seems to be small.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Neuroepidemiology, Division of Neurology, Karolinska Institute, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden. Qi.Cheng@neurotec.ki.se
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; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D020275:Guillain-Barre Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010956:Plasmapheresis; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012042:Registries; D012621:Seasons; D012737:Sex Factors; D013256:Steroids / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015996:Survival Rate; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D016756:Immunoglobulins, Intravenous; D013256:Steroids