Diagnostic Criteria, Phenotypes and Epidemiology of Autoimmune Encephalitis: Divyanshu Dubey, MBBS

WATCH TIME: 4 minutes

"Autoimmune encephalitis was found to be as common as infectious encephalitis, if not slightly more common. If you extrapolate this data to the entire world, I would say there are about 1 million autoimmune encephalitis cases in the world, and 90,000 people develop this condition every year."

Paraneoplastic syndromes are a group of distinctive neurological syndromes that are a relatively uncommon and unusual consequence of cancer. Autoimmune encephalitis is the collection of related conditions where the body’s immune system attacks the brain, which causes inflammation. Both conditions are complex neurological disorders that can present a significant diagnostic challenge for clinicians. Although, in recent years, experts proposed new diagnostic criteria to improve the understanding of their epidemiology.

At the 2023 American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, April 22-27, in Boston, Massachusetts, Divyanshu Dubey, MBBS, directed a seminar about autoimmune neurology. The seminar covered an array of topics including the identification of clinical phenotypes, electrodiagnostic, and histopathological features suggestive of serologically defined autoimmune or paraneoplastic neuromuscular presentations. Dubey and colleagues also addressed the current diagnosis and management of neuromuscular immune-related adverse events from immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies.¹

Dubey, an assistant professor of neurology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota sat down with NeurologyLive® in an interview at the meeting to discuss the diagnostic criteria that were proposed by experts in the field for autoimmune encephalitis and paraneoplastic syndromes. He spoke about the epidemiology of the condition and how it compares with infectious encephalitis. Dubey also talked about how the new diagnostic criteria for paraneoplastic syndromes have improved from the prior ones, and the significance of the Paraneoplastic-Care Score.

REFERENCES
1. Dubey D. Autoantibody Testing for Peripheral Neuropathies. Presented at: 2023 AAN Annual Meeting; April 22-27, Boston, Massachusetts. Autoimmune Neurology: Peripheral Nervous System seminar.