Diagnostic criteria for possible autoimmune encephalitis

subacute onset (usually within a few weeks but less than 3 months) with change in personality or level of consciousness and symptoms suggesting involvement of the limbic system including working memory deficits, psychiatric symptoms and seizures. At least one of the following: - A new focal clinical CNS event - EEG with epileptic or slow-wave activity - CSF pleocytosis - MRI findings suggestive of encephalitis* Reasonable exclusion of alternative causes**.

^*Hyperintense signal on T2-weighted/FLAIR highly restricted to one or both medial temporal lobes or in multifocal areas involving gray or white matter compatible with demyelination or inflammation (see below),

^**CNS infections, septic encephalopathy, metabolic encephalopathy, drug toxicity, cerebrovascular disease, neoplastic disorders, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, epileptic disorders, rheumatologic disorders, mitochondrial diseases [summarized from (14, 17, 21)].