Question

Assertion (A): Lumbar puncture is indicated in a child with fever and asymmetric flaccid limb weakness.

Reason (R): The diagnosis of Guillain-Barre syndrome can be established by albuminocytologic dissociation on CSF analysis.

• A. Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A.
• B. Both A and R are true but R is NOT the correct explanation of A.
• C. A is true but R is false.
• D. A is false but R is true.

Hint:

GBS is usually symmetric and afebrile; fever with asymmetric weakness points elsewhere.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is B

This question checks whether lumbar puncture is truly indicated in a febrile child with asymmetric flaccid weakness, and whether the stated reason about Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) is really why.

1. Assertion: A child with fever and flaccid weakness needs a lumbar puncture to look for infective causes such as poliovirus involvement or meningoencephalitis, and to study the CSF pattern. This makes the assertion true.
2. Reason: Albuminocytologic dissociation, meaning raised CSF protein with a nearly normal cell count, is indeed the classic CSF clue used to support a diagnosis of GBS. So this statement is also true by itself.

The mismatch is in the clinical picture: GBS typically causes symmetric weakness without fever, while this child has fever and asymmetric weakness, a pattern that points toward an infective cause rather than GBS. So the reason, though true in general, does not explain why the lumbar puncture is done in this specific case.

Let's summarize:

• Fever with asymmetric flaccid weakness suggests an infective cause, not GBS.
• Lumbar puncture here helps rule out infection, not confirm GBS.
• Albuminocytologic dissociation is a real GBS finding, just not relevant to this presentation.

So the final answer is: both statements are true, but R does not correctly explain A.