Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy following malaria

Aaron L Berkowitz; Kiran T Thakur

doi:10.1016/j.jocn.2013.07.031

Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy following malaria

J Clin Neurosci. 2014 Apr;21(4):704-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jocn.2013.07.031. Epub 2013 Oct 10.

Authors

Aaron L Berkowitz¹, Kiran T Thakur²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis Street, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: aberkowitz3@partners.org.
² Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.

PMID: 24417794
DOI: 10.1016/j.jocn.2013.07.031

Abstract

Among the neurologic complications of malaria, acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy is a rarely reported phenomenon. We describe a patient with acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy following malaria in a 26-year-old traveler to an endemic area and review the clinical features of all 23 previously reported patients. Malarial infection should be considered as a potential preceding trigger in patients residing in or travelers returning from malaria-endemic areas presenting with the clinical features of acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy in the setting of a recent or ongoing febrile illness.

Keywords: Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy; Guillain–Barré syndrome; Malaria; Tropical neurology.

Publication types

Case Reports
Review

MeSH terms

Adult
Female
Guillain-Barre Syndrome / etiology*
Humans
Malaria / complications*
Travel