Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 May 1.
Published in final edited form as: Neurol Clin. 2013 Feb 19;31(2):491–510. doi: 10.1016/j.ncl.2013.01.005

Table 3.

Mimics of GBS presenting as quadriparesis:*

  1. Anterior Horn cell: poliomyelitis or West Nile virus infection (asymmetric weakness)

  2. Peripheral Nerve:

    1. Critical illness neuropathy

    2. Lymphoma / leptomeningeal carcinomatous meningitis

    3. Toxic neuropathies: solvent or heavy metals

    4. Porphyria

    5. Lyme

    6. Diphtheria

    7. Vasculitic neuropathy

  3. Neuromuscular Junction:

    1. Myasthenia Gravis

    2. Botulism

    3. Tick paralysis (children)

  4. Muscle:

    1. Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies

    2. Periodic paralysis

    3. Critical illness myopathy

    4. Rhabdomyolysis

    5. Severe hypokalemia or hypophosphatemia

  5. Acute spinal cord lesion

*

Psychogenic is an exclusion diagnosis