. 2020 Jan 3;2:4. doi: 10.1186/s42466-019-0047-8

Table 2.

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

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 causes^a

All three must be fulfilled:

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

≥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

Reasonable exclusion of alternative causes^a

^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)