Autoimmune limbic encephalitis

A rare autoimmune encephalitis involving the mesial temporal lobes and clinically characterized by subacute onset (i. e. rapid progression of less than three months) of short-term memory deficits, seizures or psychiatric symptoms, such as behavioral changes, anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Further diagnostic criteria are bilateral abnormalities restricted to the mesial temporal lobes in brain MRI, cerebrospinal fluid pleocytosis and/or epileptic or slow-wave activity involving the temporal lobes in EEG, and reasonable exclusion of alternative causes. Paraneoplastic or non-paraneoplastic antibodies against neuronal antigens may be found in serum and/or cerebrospinal fluid.