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Table 2 Criteria for “possible autoimmune encephalitis” (simplified according to Panel 1 in [25])

From: Autoimmune encephalitis in children and adolescents

All three must be fulfilled:

1

Subacute onset (<  3 months) of working memory deficits (short-term memory loss), altered mental status (decreased or altered level of consciousness, lethargy or personality change) or psychiatric symptoms

2

≥1 of the following:

 - New focal CNS findings

 - Seizures not explained by a previously known seizure disorder

 - CSF pleocytosis (white blood cell count > 5/μl)

 - MRI features suggestive of encephalitis

3

Reasonable exclusion of alternative causesa

  1. aCNS infections, septic encephalopathy, metabolic encephalopathy, drug toxicity (Including use of illicit drugs, direct neurotoxic effect of prescribed drugs or through induction of seizures, posterior reversible encephalopathy, idiosyncratic reaction [e.g. neuroleptic malignant syndrome], drug interaction [e.g. serotoninergic syndrome] or drug withdrawal), cerebrovascular disease, neoplastic disorders, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, epileptic disorders, rheumatologic disorders (e.g., lupus, sarcoidosis, other), Kleine-Levin syndrome, Reye syndrome (children), mitochondrial diseases, inborn errors of metabolism (children)