2023 Volume 40 Issue 3 Pages 227-231
Newly identified autoantibodies in relation with autoimmune encephalitis have enabled the reclassification of diseases in neurology and psychiatry and its clinical scope has steadily grown. Many of them present with psychosis, memory disturbances, seizures, and movement disorders. Detection of disease–specific autoantibodies is useful for proper diagnosis and not missing immune therapy. Also, characterizing these antibody–binding antigens offer opportunities to investigate underlying pathogenesis of neurological features and understand general mechanisms of autoimmunity. However, the number of autoantibodies is increasing, which makes it difficult to use them as a diagnostic tool. Commercially available antibody–testing is limited to several autoantibodies. Others need to be sent to certain research laboratories. Additionally, several papers caution about frequently occurring false positive or false negative results and advise testing using several different detection techniques, such as brain tissue immunohistochemistry and live–cell based assays. It is crucial to think about the diagnosis of the patients very carefully not depending on only the results of the autoantibody–test, but rather observing detailed clinical features for proper treatments.
