Sodium Levels Predict Disability at Discharge in Guillain-Barré Syndrome: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an inflammatory polyradiculopathy with potentially severe complications. Clinical tools for risk stratification have been developed, but no definitive prognostic biomarker has been reported. Hyponatremia is frequent in GBS patients, but the impact of serum sodium levels on clinical outcomes is still ill-defined. In this retrospective cohort study, we included all adult patients diagnosed with GBS spectrum disorders at our center from January 2010 to July 2020. Disability at discharge was assessed with the GBS Disability Score (GDS), and all clinical and laboratory data was retrieved from medical charts. Thirty (58.8%) of the 51 subjects included in the study were discharged with severe residual disability (GDS ≥ 3). After accounting for relevant confounders, the odds of experiencing severe disability decreased by 27% (p = 0.027) for each unitary increase in serum sodium concentration. Thirteen (25.5%) patients were diagnosed with mild to moderate hyponatremia; the use of intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) independently increased the odds of developing hyponatremia. In conclusion, we found a significant, independent association between baseline serum sodium levels and severe disability at discharge in GBS patients. In our cohort, hyponatremia was more frequently observed after treatment with IVIG, suggesting dilutional pseudohyponatremia as a probable cause.