Ophthalmoplegic and lower cranial nerve variants merge into each other and into classical Guillain-Barré syndrome.

We delineated the place of cranial nerve variants within the concept of clinically defined Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). In the ophthalmoplegic variant (n = 7) the oculomotor nerves were early involved. In a lower cranial nerve variant (n = 9) the cranial nerves IX, X, and XI were early involved. During progression considerable overlap occurred between these two variants, but also with the classically ascending variant of clinically defined GBS. These findings indicate common immune mechanisms in all GBS variants.