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Information About GBS Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS):
Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) or Myasthenia Gravis:
In this video I attempted to illustrate the Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS). It's a very weird condition and a rare one and most people recover from it but their suffering is extreme since this condition literally can cause the paralysis of the entire body from toes to head! Besides horrible paralysis and muscle weakness in the limbs, this disease can also be deadly. It can literally cause respiratory and heart issues for the patients and some inexperienced people might even confuse it with other spinal cord conditions as well as myasthenia gravis. So I hope my video helps everyone, especially students preparing for the USMLE step 1.
Posted by Symptomsky – Medical Chat & USMLE-prep on Thursday, September 21, 2023
Autoimmune diseases are so dangerous that’s why we should be aware of them before they are being destroyed by our immune system. One of them is Guillain-Bare syndrome which is a rare and unfamiliar neurological condition that affects spinal root nerves and peripheral system. It is related to Campylobacter Jejuni, Zica virus, EBV and CMV. Muscles ache, numbness and tingling are its characteristic symptoms.
Guillain-Barre syndrome can increase in intensity over a period of hours, days or weeks until certain muscles cannot be used at all and when severe, the person is almost totally paralyzed.
Coming to its symptoms, they are weakness, sensation changes, difficulty with eye muscles and vision , difficulty in swallowing, speaking, chewing, pricking or pins and needle sensation in the hands and feet and pain that can be severe particularly at night. Although leg weakness is a common initial symptom of this syndrome which can progress to paralysis.Additionally, patients complain of breathing difficulty due to weak respiratory muscles and cardiac autonomic dysfunction.
The Cranial nerves (CN III-XII) are also affected by this syndrome. As a result of bacterial and viral infection, inflammation in Guillain-Barre syndrome can damage the myelin sheath which disrupts nerve signals causing some neurological symptoms like impairment of cranial nerves and upper and lower limbs paralysis.
Guillain-Barre syndrome can be confused with other conditions like Myasthenia Gravis, Lyme Disease and Spinal cord diseases, although clinical testing and examinations can help to distinguish between them. For sufferers it can lead to problems with their heart and breathing. There is no known cure for Guillain-Barre syndrome.However some therapies can lessen the severity of the illness and shorten your recovery time.
Immunoglobulin therapy or Plasmapheresis are the two possible treatments. Physical treatment may be necessary for Guillain-Barre syndrome patients to fully recover. Its recovery could take months or even years. This condition can be fatal and life-threatening but most of the people recover from it.