Electrophoretic patterns of blood sera in poliomyelitis and Guillain-Barré's disease (encephalomyeloradiculitis)

Abstract

Summary 1. Electrophoretic study was made of the blood sera of 4 “normal” children,23 cases of poliomyelitis, 5 cases of Guillain-Barre's disease (encephalomyeloradiculitis), 1 case of pseudohypertrophic progressive muscular dystrophy, and 1 case of paralysis of unknown etiology. 2. All of the electrophoretic patterns of the sera of the “normal” childrenagreed well with those in the literature for adults. 3. All of the cases of poliomyelitis, with a single exception, showed definite abnormalities in the beta disturbance, although the time from onset of illness ranged from 6 days to 22 years. 4. In one case of poliomyelitis no abnormality in the beta disturbance was noted at the eighth day of illness but there was a definite abnormalitiy at the nineteenth day. 5. In 2 cases of poliomyelitis there was a definite decrease in the abnormalityof the beta disturbance after periods of ninety-seven days and two hundred and twenty-four days had elapsed following the first determination. 6. The electrophoretic patterns of the sera of patients with Guillain-Barre'sdisease (encephalomyeloradiculitis) did not differ appreciably from those of patients with poliomyelitis. 7. Electrophoretic patterns of the serum of the one patient with pseudohypertrophicprogressive muscular dystrophy and of the one patient with paralysis of unknown etiology were within normal limits. 8. Calculations of the proportions of the various electrophoretic components present did not reveal any consistent differences between the normal and the pathologic sera studied.