Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Original Article
  • Published:

Post-Transplant Complications

Guillain–Barré syndrome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 29, pages 515–517 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Guillain–Barré syndrome is a rare complication in the setting of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. We report three children with T cell lymphoma/leukemia in whom this syndrome developed soon after they received unrelated donor transplants. The rapid onset of symptoms raises the concern that the bone marrow transplant conditioning regimen (ie, total body irradiation, cyclophosphamide and cytosine arabinoside) might have precipitated the clinical syndrome of ascending polyneuropathy. Although central nervous system toxicity has been well described with high-dose cytosine arabinoside therapy, peripheral neuropathy of the Guillain–Barré type has been reported only infrequently. We review possible factors contributing to the development of this syndrome in these three patients.

Bone Marrow Transplantation (2002) 29, 515–517. doi:10.1038/sj.bmt.1703412

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Johnson NT, Crawford SW, Sargur M . Acute acquired demyelinating polyneuropathy with respiratory failure following high-dose systemic cytosine arabinoside and marrow transplantation Bone Marrow Transplant 1987 2: 203 207

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Patchell RA, White CL III, Clark AW et al. Neurologic complications of bone marrow transplantation Neurology 1985 35: 300 306

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Graus F, Rogers LR, Posner JB . Cerebrovascular complications in patients with cancer Medicine (Baltimore) 1985 64: 16 35

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Hahn AF . Guillain–Barré syndrome Lancet 1998 352: 635 641

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Hongeng S, Krance RA, Bowman LC et al. Outcomes of transplantation with matched-sibling and unrelated-donor bone marrow in children with leukaemia Lancet 1997 350: 767 771

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Sater RA, Rostami A . Treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome with intravenous immunoglobulin Neurology 1998 51 (Suppl. 5): S9 S15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Mudad R, Hussein A, Peters WP . Guillain–Barré syndrome following autologous bone marrow transplantation Am J Clin Oncol 1995 18: 167 169

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Myers SE, Williams SF . Guillain–Barré syndrome after autologous bone marrow transplantation for breast cancer: report of two cases Bone Marrow Transplant 1994 13: 341 344

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Perry A, Mehta J, Iveson T et al. Guillain–Barré syndrome after bone marrow transplantation Bone Marrow Transplant 1994 14: 165 167

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Wen PY, Alyea EP, Simon D et al. Guillain–Barré syndrome following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation Neurology 1997 49: 1711 1714

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Lopez JA, Agarwal RP . Acute cerebellar toxicity after high-dose cytarabine associated with CNS accumulation of its metabolite, uracil arabinoside Cancer Treat Rep 1984 68: 1309 1310

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Duffy TP . How much is too much high-dose cytosine arabinoside? J Clin Oncol 1985 3: 601 603

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Nand S, Messmore HL Jr, Patel R et al. Neurotoxicity associated with systemic high-dose cytosine arabinoside J Clin Oncol 1986 4: 571 575

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Aguayo A, Cortes JE, Kantarjian HM et al. Complete hematologic and cytogenetic response to 2-amino-9-beta-D-arabinosyl-6-methoxy-9H-guanine in a patient with chronic myelo-genous leukemia in T-cell blastic phase: a case report and review of the literature Cancer 1999 85: 58 64

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. Kurtzberg J, Keating MJ, Plunkett W et al. Compound 506 (2-amino-6-methoxypurine arabinoside) is active against resistant T-cell malignancies: preliminary results of an ongoing phase I trial (abstract) J Clin Oncol 1996 14: 1750

    Google Scholar 

  16. Dunton SF, Nitschke R, Spruce WE et al. Progressive ascending paralysis following administration of intrathecal and intravenous cytosine arabinoside. A Pediatric Oncology Group study Cancer 1986 57: 1083 1088

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Author notes

  1. V Rodriguez

    Present address: Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, MN 55905, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX, USA

    V Rodriguez, I Kuehnle, HE Heslop, S Khan & RA Krance

Authors
  1. V Rodriguez
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. I Kuehnle
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. HE Heslop
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. S Khan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. RA Krance
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Rodriguez, V., Kuehnle, I., Heslop, H. et al. Guillain–Barré syndrome after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Bone Marrow Transplant 29, 515–517 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703412

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1703412

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links