title: Clinical correlates of serum anti-GT1a IgG antibodies.
abstract: Patients with the pharyngeal-cervical-brachial variant (PCB) of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) have anti-GT1a IgG with or without GQ1b reactivity, whereas those with Fisher syndrome (FS) or Bickerstaff's brainstem encephalitis (BBE) have anti-GQ1b IgG antibodies which cross-react with GT1a. The nosological relationship between these conditions has yet to be established. To investigate the relationships between each manifestation and between clinical features and the coexistence of anti-GQ1b IgG, we reviewed neurological signs present during illnesses of 140 patients who had anti-GT1a IgG. Based on our criteria, FS was diagnosed for 64 (46%) patients, GBS for 22 (16%), BBE for 14 (10%), and PCB for 6 (4%). Overlapping conditions were diagnosed for some patients: FS and GBS (5%), PCB and FS (5%), BBE and GBS (4%), and PCB and BBE (1%). Patients who initially had bulbar palsy developed not only PCB but FS or BBE. The population of anti-GT1a-positive patients frequently had ophthalmoplegia, ataxia, and areflexia, whereas the subpopulation who had anti-GT1a IgG without GQ1b reactivity frequently had preceding diarrhea as well as oropharyngeal, neck, and limb weakness. Patients with anti-GT1a IgG presented a variety of clinical conditions, indicative of a continuous clinical spectrum. A major part of this clinical variation was due to the coexistence of anti-GQ1b IgG. The presence of a common autoantibody (anti-GT1a IgG) and overlapping illnesses suggests that PCB is closely related not only to GBS but to FS and BBE as well.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Dokkyo University School of Medicine, Kitakobayashi 880, Mibu, Shimotsuga, Tochigi 321-0293, Japan.
authors.forename: Takahide
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nagashima
authors.forename: Michiaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koga
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Odaka
authors.forename: Koichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hirata
authors.forename: Nobuhiro
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yuki
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005732:Gangliosides / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019846:Miller Fisher Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D009460:Neurologic Examination; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D005732:Gangliosides; D007074:Immunoglobulin G; C016481:trisialoganglioside GT1; C039129:GQ1b ganglioside