Walsh & Hoyt: Nomenclature

The earliest description of AIDP most likely was by Wardrop and Ollivier in 1834. By 1859, Landry had described similar patients with ascending flaccid paralysis of the extremities, bulbar paralysis, and death within a week. In 1916, Guillain, Barre, and Strohl described two patients with motor disturbances, loss of deep-tendon reflexes, preserved cutaneous reflexes, and increased albumin without pleocytosis in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF). Authors began to refer to the condition as the Landry-Guillain-Barre-Strohl or Guillain-Barre-Strohl syndrome based on this history. The name was shortened to Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) by Draganesco and Claudian in 1927 and remained in use to describe this disease until recently. Pathologic and electrophysiologic findings led to the current designation of the condition as AIDP, and we will use this term throughout this chapter instead of GBS.