tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
Eur J Neurol
. 2022 Aug 1.
doi: 10.1111/ene.15516. Online ahead of print.
Guillain-Barré Syndrome Following Influenza Vaccination; A 15-year nationwide population-based case-control study
Lotte Sahin Levison[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Reimar Wernich Thomsen[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Henning Andersen[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
Abstract
Background: Influenza vaccination may increase the risk of developing Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) due to an elicited immune response, but the exact magnitude and duration of risk is unclear.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective nationwide population-based case-control study of prospectively collected data on all patients with first-time hospital-diagnosed GBS in Denmark between 2002 and 2016 and ten age, sex and index date-matched population controls per case. The primary exposure was incident influenza vaccination one month prior to admission with GBS. We used medical registries to ascertain a complete hospital contact history of pre-existing morbidities. To examine duration of GBS risk, we repeated the analysis for five consecutive 1-month risk periods following vaccination.
Results: Of the 1,295 GBS cases and 12,814 controls, 20 cases (1.5%) and 119 controls (0.9%) had received an influenza vaccination within the last month, yielding a comorbidity-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.9 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1-3.2) for GBS. Stratified analyses by calendar time, gender and age showed similar results. The increased risk of GBS was largely confined to one month following influenza vaccination. The population-attributable fraction of GBS from influenza vaccination in Denmark was 0.4 %.
Conclusions: Influenza vaccination was associated with a slightly elevated risk of GBS occurrence within one month after vaccination. However, only 1.5% of GBS cases in Denmark are associated with recent influenza vaccination. Thus, the benefit of influenza vaccines in preventing influenza infections and associated morbidity and mortality needs to be weighed against the small absolute risk of GBS.
Keywords: Epidemiology; Guillain-Barré syndrome; Neuropathy.
. 2022 Aug 1.
doi: 10.1111/ene.15516. Online ahead of print.
Guillain-Barré Syndrome Following Influenza Vaccination; A 15-year nationwide population-based case-control study
Lotte Sahin Levison[SUP] 1 [/SUP], Reimar Wernich Thomsen[SUP] 2 [/SUP], Henning Andersen[SUP] 1 [/SUP]
Affiliations
- PMID: 35913431
- DOI: 10.1111/ene.15516
Abstract
Background: Influenza vaccination may increase the risk of developing Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) due to an elicited immune response, but the exact magnitude and duration of risk is unclear.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective nationwide population-based case-control study of prospectively collected data on all patients with first-time hospital-diagnosed GBS in Denmark between 2002 and 2016 and ten age, sex and index date-matched population controls per case. The primary exposure was incident influenza vaccination one month prior to admission with GBS. We used medical registries to ascertain a complete hospital contact history of pre-existing morbidities. To examine duration of GBS risk, we repeated the analysis for five consecutive 1-month risk periods following vaccination.
Results: Of the 1,295 GBS cases and 12,814 controls, 20 cases (1.5%) and 119 controls (0.9%) had received an influenza vaccination within the last month, yielding a comorbidity-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.9 (95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1-3.2) for GBS. Stratified analyses by calendar time, gender and age showed similar results. The increased risk of GBS was largely confined to one month following influenza vaccination. The population-attributable fraction of GBS from influenza vaccination in Denmark was 0.4 %.
Conclusions: Influenza vaccination was associated with a slightly elevated risk of GBS occurrence within one month after vaccination. However, only 1.5% of GBS cases in Denmark are associated with recent influenza vaccination. Thus, the benefit of influenza vaccines in preventing influenza infections and associated morbidity and mortality needs to be weighed against the small absolute risk of GBS.
Keywords: Epidemiology; Guillain-Barré syndrome; Neuropathy.