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Treatment of Guillain‐Barré syndrome with high‐dose immune globulins combined with methylprednisolone: A pilot study
Author(s) -
AUTHOR_ID
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
annals of neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.764
H-Index - 296
eISSN - 1531-8249
pISSN - 0364-5134
DOI - 10.1002/ana.410350618
Subject(s) - methylprednisolone , medicine , guillain barre syndrome , globulin , immune system , gamma globulin , randomized controlled trial , clinical trial , immunology , gastroenterology , antibody
In an open study 25 patients with Guillain‐Barré syndrome were treated for 5 days with intravenous immune globulins in a dose of 0.4 gm/kg of body weight/day and 0.5 gm of methylprednisolone intravenously per day. The results of this combined treatment were compared with the results from a group of 74 patients who were treated with immune globulins only in a recent Dutch Guillain‐Barré trial. In the methylprednisolone–immune globulin treatment group, 19 of 25 patients (76%) improved by one or more functional grades after 4 weeks, as compared with 39 (53%) of 74 patients treated with immune globulin alone ( p = 0.04). Also the median time required to the stage of walking independently was reduced in the methylprednisolone–immune globulin treatment group. This pilot study suggests that combined treatment with methylprednisolone and immune globulins in patients with the Guillain‐Barré syndrome is more effective than treatment with immune globulins alone; a randomized clinical trial might confirm this.