Postmortem Findings in Patient with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and Zika Virus Infection

Abstract

Postmortem examination results of a patient with Guillain-Barré syndrome and confirmed Zika virus infection revealed demyelination of the sciatic and cranial IV nerves, providing evidence of the acute demyelinating inflammatory polyneuropathy Guillain-Barré syndrome variant. Lack of evidence of Zika virus in nervous tissue suggests that pathophysiology was antibody mediated without neurotropism.

Keywords

• Guillain-Barré syndrome
• Zika virus
• vector-borne infections
• postmortem investigation
• infectious disease pathophysiology
• Puerto Rico