NYTimes: The Woman with Creeping Paralysis

A great link. Thank you.

We have seen cases reported on this forum where somebody’s GBS was ruled out because the spinal tap was negative.

According to the June 3, 2011 article, [COLOR=”Red”]a spinal tap is accurate in diagnosing G.B.S. up to 90 percent of the time.

BUT, not until one week after symptoms[/COLOR]. One week later. File that away some where.

Further, the article went on to say that the blood test that confirmed the diagnosis of the Miller Fisher variant is accurate in 90 percent of patients with this version of Guillain-Barré. Even these results took 3 days to come back.

Too bad, I did not see the blood test name in the original article. According to the NIH, “…The majority of individuals with Miller Fisher syndrome have a unique antibody that characterizes the disorder. …”

Turns out, the NY times article’s author started a blog before May 19, 2011. here:

[url]http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/19/think-like-a-doctor-a-toothache-and-slurred-speech-solved/[/url]

The blood test results, all of them, are here:

[url]http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/health/pdf/Diagnosis/20110518/positiveresults.pdf[/url]

If you cannot open a .pdf file down load either of the free Adobe Reader or Foxit PDF Reader. I prefer Foxit

[COLOR=”Red”]The specific blood test circled is GQ1B antibody >1:3,200.[/COLOR] Reference range is <1:100. If > or = 1:100 then antibodies detected.

Reminder. > means greater than. < means less than. Of course = means equals. : means in, or to as 1 in 100. I also learned that the MF variant begins with the head and eyes and goes down.