Title: Guillain–Barré syndrome
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - Guillain–Barré syndrome
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.11797
Status: current

Definition
Type of idiopathic polyneuritis in which autoimmunity to peripheral nerve, myelin leads to a condition characterized by chronic demyelination of the spinal roots (see spinal cord), peripheral nerves, and cranial nerves.

Note
Guillain–Barré syndrome is often preceded by a respiratory or gastrointestinal infection and shows gradual but complete recovery in most cases.

Related Terms
- cranial nerves: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11700
- demyelination: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11707
- myelin: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11896
- peripheral nerve: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12003
- polyneuritis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/12013

Source
- PAC, 2015, 87, 841. 'IUPAC Glossary of terms used in neurotoxicology (IUPAC Recommendations 2015)' on page 871 (https://doi.org/10.1515/pac-2015-0103)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11797/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11797/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/11797/xml

Citation: Citation: 'Guillain–Barré syndrome' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.11797
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Accessed: 2026-05-14T15:00:47+00:00