Association of Hospital-Diagnosed Infections and Antibiotic Use With Risk of Developing Guillain-Barré Syndrome
Citation Manager Formats
Make Comment
See Comments

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Abstract
Objective To determine whether hospital-diagnosed and community-treated infections are important Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) risk factors, we investigated the magnitude and duration of associated GBS risk.
Methods We conducted a nationwide population-based case–control study of all patients with first-time hospital-diagnosed GBS in Denmark between 1987 and 2016 and 10 matched population controls per case. Hospital-diagnosed infections were determined in the 1987–2016 period and community antibiotic prescriptions in the 2004–2016 period. We used conditional logistic regression to examine the relative risk of GBS associated with having a recent infection.
Results Hospital-diagnosed infections within 60 days were observed in 4.3% of 2,414 GBS cases vs 0.3% of 23,909 controls, with a matched odds ratio (OR) of 13.7 (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.2–18.5). The strongest association with subsequent GBS was observed for lower respiratory tract infection, gastrointestinal tract infection, and septicemia. Community antibiotic prescriptions within 60 days were observed in 22.4% of 1,086 GBS cases and 7.8% of 10,747 controls, with a matched OR of 3.5 (95% CI, 3.0–4.1). The risk of GBS declined considerably with time since infection, with high ORs of 21.3 (95% CI, 14.5–31.2) and 4.7 (95% CI, 3.9–5.7) observed within the first month after a hospital-diagnosed infection and a community antibiotic prescription, respectively. However, GBS risk remained increased 2.4-fold (95% CI, 1.1–5.5) and 1.5-fold (95% CI, 1.2–2.0) even in the fifth month after infection.
Conclusion There is a strong, temporal association between community antibiotic use and especially infections necessitating hospitalization and risk of subsequent GBS.
Glossary
- CCI=
- Charlson Comorbidity Index;
- CI=
- confidence interval;
- CRP=
- C-reactive protein;
- CRS=
- Civil Registration System;
- DNHSP=
- Danish National Health Service Prescription Database;
- DNPR=
- Danish National Patient Registry;
- GAS=
- group A streptococcal;
- GBS=
- Guillain-Barré syndrome;
- ICD=
- International Classification of Diseases;
- IRR=
- incidence rate ratio;
- NHSR=
- National Health Insurance Service Registry;
- OR=
- odds ratio
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org/N for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
CME Course: NPub.org/cmelist
- Received June 3, 2020.
- Accepted in final form October 2, 2020.
- © 2020 American Academy of Neurology
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
For assistance, please contact:
AAN Members (800) 879-1960 or (612) 928-6000 (International)
Non-AAN Member subscribers (800) 638-3030 or (301) 223-2300 option 3, select 1 (international)
Sign Up
Information on how to subscribe to Neurology and Neurology: Clinical Practice can be found here
Purchase
Individual access to articles is available through the Add to Cart option on the article page. Access for 1 day (from the computer you are currently using) is US$ 39.00. Pay-per-view content is for the use of the payee only, and content may not be further distributed by print or electronic means. The payee may view, download, and/or print the article for his/her personal, scholarly, research, and educational use. Distributing copies (electronic or otherwise) of the article is not allowed.
Disputes & Debates: Rapid online correspondence
NOTE: All authors' disclosures must be entered and current in our database before comments can be posted. Enter and update disclosures at http://submit.neurology.org. Exception: replies to comments concerning an article you originally authored do not require updated disclosures.
- Stay timely. Submit only on articles published within the last 8 weeks.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- 200 words maximum.
- 5 references maximum. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- 5 authors maximum. Exception: replies can include all original authors of the article.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.