Dysimmune Encephalitis: Clinical Study

Abstract

Introduction: Autoimmune encephalitis is a new and little-known entity targeting CNS antigens. It often causes inflammatory limbic encephalitis, for which immunotherapy is effective. Objective: The main objective of the study is to determine the clinical and paraclinical characteristics of encephalitides associated with NMDAr, CASPR2 and LGI1 antibodies. Materials and methods: It are a descriptive, prospective and retrospective study, which started from January 2016 to December 2018. Results: Our cohort included 30 patients with a mean age of 44±18.05 years. The limbic encephalitis was acute in 73.3%. The patients presented mainly psychiatric and vigilance disorders, epileptic seizures, dysautonomia, and memory disorders. A temporal hyper signal (± extra limbic) was often found on MRI, with non-specific abnormalities in the EEG and an inflammatory CSF profile. FBDS, dyskinesias, and neuro myotonia were the discriminating signs. Neoplasia was found in 16.7% of the cases. Immunotherapy led to good results. Conclusion: This study aimed to know how to identify these entities in our country and establish an early and effective treatment for better outcomes. A study with large samples would be more beneficial.