Table 1 Features and antibodies characteristic of autoimmune encephalitis in children and adolescents. The list of antibodies may not be exhaustive, as the field is still young and there are still reports of new associations from the pediatric age range. Abbreviations are spelled out in the list at the beginning of the article

 Limbic encephalitis

LGI1, CASPR2, GABABR, GAD65, Hu, DNER

 Encephalopathy (in the sense of a diffuse affection of brain function)

NMDAR, GABABR, mGluR5

 Brainstem encephalitis

GQ1b

 Cerebellitis/autoimmune cerebellar syndrome

DNER, VGCC, NMDAR, mGluR1^a

 Opsoclonus myoclonus syndrome

Hu, GAD65

 Progressive encephalomyelitis with rigidity and myoclonus

GAD65, GlyR

 Demyelinating diseases

MOG, Aquaporin-4, NMDAR*

 Girls

GAD65 (NMDAR?)

 Other autoimmune disease

GAD65

 Epilepsy onset along with prominent psychiatric or cognitive symptoms

LGI1, CASPR2, NMDAR, GABABR, GAD65, Hu, DNER

 Onset with status epilepticus or very high seizure frequency

NMDAR, LGI1, GABAAR, GABABR, GAD65

 Non-viral secondary disease after viral encephalitis

NMDAR and not further characterized surface antigens

 Encephalopathy after respiratory infection

MOG

 Neoplasm

Onconeural; mGluR5 (Hodgkin disease)

 EEG: “extreme delta brush”

NMDAR

 Increased CSF count or autochthonous oligoclonal bands

All except LGI1

 MRI: encephalitic lesion(s)

LGI1, CASPR2, GABABR, GAD, Hu, DNER

 MRI: demyelination

MOG, Aquaporin-4, NMDAR

 Encephalitic histopathology

All