Neural Antibodies in First-episode Psychosis Patients with Warning Signs for Autoimmune Encephalitis
Denis Pavăl1,2, Nicoleta Gherghel-Pavăl2, Octavia Oana Căpățînă1,2
1Department of Psychiatry, Iuliu Ha?ieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Objective:
: Autoimmune encephalitis (AE) remains an essential differential diagnosis in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP). In this study, we aimed to assess to prevalence of AE in a cohort of FEP patients.
Methods:
: We used a phenotype-driven algorithm to detect AE in patients with FEP. Initially, we screened patients for warning signs with a low or high pre-test probability for AE, defined as "yellow" and "red flags", respectively. In the next step, patients with red flags underwent cerebrospinal fluid analysis (including neural antibodies), while patients with yellow flags underwent tests for serum neural antibodies, electroencephalography, and brain magnetic resonance imaging.
Results:
: We screened 78 patients with FEP and found that eight (10.3%) had at least one warning sign for AE: four (5.13%) patients had at least one red flag, while four (5.13%) had only yellow flags. Among these, two patients (2.56%) had anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor encephalitis, while the remaining six (7.69%) received a primary psychiatric disorder diagnosis.
Conclusion:
: Our study highlights the importance of considering AE in the differential diagnosis of FEP.
More Related Videos
07:20A Simple Cell-based Immunofluorescence Assay to Detect Autoantibody Against the N-Methyl-D-Aspartate NMDA Receptor in Blood
Published on: January 9, 2018
08:20Hippocampal Neuronal Cultures to Detect and Study New Pathogenic Antibodies Involved in Autoimmune Encephalitis
Published on: June 2, 2022
Related Concept Videos
Neural Regulation
Disorders of the Nervous Tissue
Homeostatic Imbalances:
Alzheimer's disease manifests as a gradual decline in memory and cognitive abilities, attributed to the buildup of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain.
Parkinson's disease arises from the...
Special Features of Adaptive Immunity
The primary cell types involved in adaptive immunity are T cells and B cells. Each type has a unique role in defending the body against pathogens. T cells are responsible for cell-mediated immunity. They identify and eliminate infected cells directly,...
Encephalitis l: Introduction
Encephalitis ll: Pathophysiology
Multiple Sclerosis l: Introduction
