[Clinical features of children with Guillain-Barré syndrome and the significance of Brighton criteria].

OBJECTIVE: To study the clinical features of children with Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) and the significance of Brighton criteria in childhood GBS. METHODS: A retrospective analysis was performed on the medical data of 72 children with GBS. Brighton criteria were used for the grading of diagnostic certainty (level 1 as the highest level, and level 4 as the lowest level). A Spearman's rank correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation of auxiliary examinations with the level of diagnostic certainty of Brighton criteria. RESULTS: A total of 72 children with GBS were enrolled, with a mean age of onset of (98±32) months. All children (100%, 72/72) had weakness of bilateral limbs and disappearance or reduction of tendon reflex, and limb weakness reached the highest level of severity within 4 weeks. Of all the 72 children, 68 (94%) had positive results of neural electrophysiological examination and 51 (71%) had positive results of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) examination, and the positive rate of neural electrophysiological examination was significantly higher than that of CSF examination (P < 0.01). The median interval time from disease onset to neural electrophysiological examination was significantly shorter than from disease onset to CSF examination (11 days vs 14 days, P < 0.01). Of all the 72 children, 49 (68%) met Brighton criteria level 1 and 21 (29%) met Brighton criteria level 2. Neural electrophysiological examination and CSF examination were positively correlated with the level of diagnostic certainty of Brighton criteria (rs=0.953 and 0.420 respectively, P < 0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Most of the children with GBS meet Brighton criteria level 1, and the positive results of CSF examination and neural electrophysiological examination play an important role in improving the level of diagnostic certainty of Brighton criteria. Neural electrophysiological examination has a higher positive rate than CSF examination in the early stage of the disease.