GBS is an immune-mediated peripheral neuropathy that causes transient autonomic dysfunction, including heart, bladder, and bowel problems. However, interestingly, GBS can also cause her TCM, a serious complication that doctors need to pay more attention to. Researchers at Kindai University have discovered parameters that reveal the link between these two disorders.

Image credit: “Mouse Neuromuscular Junction” by James N. Sleigh

This acute disease, usually caused after a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection, causes the body’s immune system to attack its own peripheral nerves, damaging the myelin sheaths and axons that make up the nerves. If left untreated, GBS can cause weakness, numbness, and eventually paralysis. In most cases, GBS also causes transient autonomic dysfunction, including heart, bladder, and bowel problems. Interestingly, GBS can also cause a condition known as Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TCM). Commonly known in Chinese medicine as “broken heart syndrome,” it is characterized by dilatation of the left ventricle and weakening of the heart muscle, causing symptoms similar to those observed during a heart attack. Although doctors recognize TCM as a complication of GBS, little is known about the relationship between the two.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Neurology, a Japanese research team sought to address this knowledge gap. Researchers including Atsushi Terayama, Motoi Kuwabara, Keisuke Yoshikawa, Susumu Kusunoki, and Professor Yoshitaka Nagai from Kinki University School of Medicine conducted a retrospective comparative analysis of clinical data between patients with GBS and patients with GBS. – Chinese medicine. “TCM is a serious complication of GBS, so doctors should pay more attention to it. However, to our knowledge, only few studies have focused on the relationship between these disorders so far. No,” Terayama commented.