[Very-early and early neuroelectrophysiological features of childhood Guillain-Barré syndrome].

Objectives: To study the very-early and early neuroelectrophysiological features of childhood Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and their association with clinical diagnosis.

Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on the neuroelectrophysiological data of 43 children with GBS. According to the interval from onset to neuroelectrophysiological examination, the children were divided into a very-early examination group with 18 children (an interval from onset to the examination of ≤7 days) and an early examination group with 25 children (an interval from onset to the examination of 7 to ≤14 days). The children with acute flaccid paralysis, matched for the examination time of GBS children, were enrolled as the control group. The abnormal rates of neuroelectrophysiological parameters were compared between the above groups. According to the results of the H reflex test, the GBS children were divided into an abnormal H reflex group and a normal H reflex group, and related clinical data were compared between the two groups.

Results: Compared with the control group, the very-early and early examination groups had a significantly higher abnormal rate of H reflex (<0.05), while there was no significant difference in the abnormal rates of F wave, motor nerve conduction, and sensory nerve conduction (>0.05). Compared with the normal H reflex group, the abnormal H reflex group had a significantly shorter interval from onset to the time of confirmed diagnosis (<0.05).

Conclusions: Absence of the H reflex is a valuable parameter of neuroelectrophysiological abnormalities in the early stage of GBS and can help with the diagnosis of GBS.