AbstractBackground and purposeClinical symptoms and laboratory indices for acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP), a variant of Guillain−Barré syndrome, and acute‐onset chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (A‐CIDP) were analyzed to identify factors that could contribute to early differential diagnosis.MethodsA retrospective chart review was performed on 44 AIDP and 44 A‐CIDP patients looking for any demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations or laboratory parameters that might differentiate AIDP from acutely presenting CIDP.ResultsIn Guillain−Barré syndrome patients (N = 63), 69.84% (N = 44) were classified as having AIDP, 19.05% (N = 12) were found to have acute motor axonal neuropathy, 6.35% (N = 4) were found to have acute motor and sensory axonal neuropathy, and 4.76% (N = 3) were found to have Miller Fisher syndrome. Serum uric acid (UA) was higher in A‐CIDP patients (329.55 ± 72.23 μmol/L) than in AIDP patients (221.08 ± 71.32 μmol/L) (p = 0.000). Receiver operating characteristic analyses indicated that the optimal UA cutoff was 283.50 μmol/L. Above this level, patients were more likely to present A‐CIDP than AIDP (specificity 81.80%, sensitivity 81.80%). During the follow‐up process, serum samples were effectively collected from 19 AIDP patients during the rehabilitation phase and 28 A‐CIDP patients during the remission stage, and it was found that UA levels were significantly increased in A‐CIDP (remission) (298.9 ± 90.39 μmol/L) compared with AIDP (rehabilitation) (220.1 ± 108.2 μmol/L, p = 0.009).ConclusionThese results suggest that serum UA level can help to differentiate AIDP from A‐CIDP with high specificity and sensitivity, which is helpful for early diagnosis and guidance of treatment.