Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 11, 2026
Imaging CD19+ B Cells in an Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis Mouse Model using Positron Emission Tomography
Published on: January 20, 2023
Monitoring the Effect of Immunotherapy in Autoimmune Limbic Encephalitis Using 18F-FDG PET
Cristina Trevino-Peinado1, Javier Arbizu, Pablo Irimia
1From the Departments of *Neurology and †Nuclear Medicine, Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
Abstract:
A 70-year-old woman with a history of autoimmune hepatitis and renal cell carcinoma presented with subacute cognitive impairment. A brain MRI revealed mild leukoaraiosis, whereas brain F-FDG PET/CT showed diffuse cerebral hypometabolism that resembled some of the patterns described in limbic encephalitis and neurodegenerative diseases. With the suspicion of autoimmune encephalitis, the patient received immunotherapy with dramatic improvement of cognitive function and metabolic normalization at the 2-month follow-up on brain F-FDG PET/CT. Our results demonstrate that brain F-FDG PET/CT might be a useful tool in the assessment of patients with autoimmune encephalitis.
