24. Have you been examined for glaucoma? Yes 77%. 25. Do you use a car seat-belt? Yes 99%. 26. Do you practice defensive driving? Yes 92%. 27. Would you consider prophylactic magnetic resonance

imaging if over the age of 40? Yes 26%. 28. If depressed would you seek expert help? Yes 89%.

Editor’s Note: This poll was carried out by Dr C. Miller Fisher; it is printed as received for the interest of the read- ership.

A.K.A.

Historical Aspects of Guillain-Barre Syndrome Michael Rubin, MD, FRCP(C)

As an amateur historian, though not specifically of neurology, I am surprised that the article covering historical aspects of Guillain-BarrC syndrome [ 11 omits the contribution of Landry [2) in the history of this disorder. As noted in the references to the paper, more than one group of authors have in fact referred to it as the Landry-Guillain-Barre (Strohl) syndrome [ 3 , 4, 5 ) .

Neuromuj-czlar Sewice The New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center New York, N Y

References 1. Asbury AK. Guillain-Barre syndrome: historical aspects. Ann

Neurol 19c)O;27(suppl):S2-S6

2. Landry 0. Note sur la paralysie ascendance aigue. Gaz Hebd Med Chirurg 1859;6:472-474, 486-488

3. Haymaker W, Kernohan JW. The Landry-Guillain-Barre syn- drome: a clinical pathologic report of 50 fatal cases and a review of the literature. Medicine 1949;28:59-141

4. Marshall J. The Landry-Guillain-Barri syndrome. Bran 1963; 86:55-66

5 . Wiederholt WC, Mulder DW, Lambert EA. The Landry- Gdlain-Barrk-Strohl syndrome of polyradxuloneuropachy : his- torical review, report on 97 patients and present concepts. Mayo Clin Proc 1964;39:427-451

Reply A. K. Asbury, MD

In a brief, four-page essay published in 1859, Landry dis- cussed aspects of 10 cases of acute ascending paralysis, 5 observed personally and 5 about which he had read. Diagno- ses are, in retrospect, not clear in these cases because of the fragmentary clinical descriptions, and of course, the spinal fluid was not examined in any (the technique had not been invented). To this observer, rhe first clear description of the disorder we now call Guillain-BarrC syndrome was published in 1916 [l). Perhaps it is Strohl, not Landry, whose disap- pearance we should lament.

Department of Nezrology Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA

Reference 1. Guillain G, Barr6 J-A, Strohl A: Sur un syndrome de radiculo-

nivrite avec hyperalbuminose du liquide ckphalo-rachidiem sous r6action cellulaire. Remarques SUT les caractcres cliniques et graphiques des reflexes tendineux. Bull SOC Med Hop Paris 19 16;40: 1462- 1470

Annals of Neurology Vol 29 No 6 June 1991 691