Simon Rinaldi
Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences.
Professor of Neurology and Honorary Consultant Neurologist
I lead the University of Oxford's programme of research into the inflammatory neuropathies.
Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is a devastating, acute inflammatory neuropathy with substantial mortality as well as morbidity. There is an urgent need to improve upon the current situation where 4-5% of GBS patients die, 20-25% require mechanical ventilation, 14-20% have severe disability at 1 year, and many more are left with residual weakness, persistent pain and/or are unable to resume their former occupation.
Chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculo-neuropathy (CIDP) and multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) are chronic inflammatory neuropathies which produce significant long-term and often progressive disability with a sizeable economic cost.