Autoimmune Encephalitis in Latin America: A Critical Review

Autor: Gabriel de Albuquerque Vasconcelos, Rodrigo Montenegro Barreira, Karmelita Emanuelle Nogueira Torres Antoniollo, Alina Maria Nuñez Pinheiro, Cíntia Fernandes Rodrigues Maia, Danyela Martins Bezerra Soares Alves, Paulo Ribeiro Nóbrega, Pedro Braga-Neto
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2021
Předmět:
Zdroj: Frontiers in Neurology, Vol 11 (2021)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1664-2295
DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2020.606350
Popis: Autoimmune encephalitis is an increasingly recognized cause of encephalitis. The majority of case series report patients residing in developed countries in the northern hemisphere. The epidemiologic features of autoimmune encephalitis in Latin America are still unclear. The aim of the study was to perform a review of the clinical presentation of autoimmune encephalitis in Latin America and compare to world literature. References were identified by an in-depth literature search and selected on the basis of relevance to the topic and authors' judgment. We selected clinical studies and case reports published from 2007 to July, 2020 including patients from Latin American countries. Of the 379 patients included, the majority were cases of anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis (93.14%), followed by anti-VGKC-complex encephalitis (N = 17; 4.48%), anti-GAD encephalitis (N = 9; 2.37%), anti-AMPA receptor encephalitis (N = 1; 0.26%), anti-GABA receptor encephalitis (N = 1; 0. 26%), anti-mGluR5 encephalitis (N = 1; 0. 26%), and anti-mGluR1 encephalitis (N = 1; 0. 26%). Reported cases of Anti-NMDA encephalitis in Latin-America had a very slight female predominance, lower prevalence of associated tumors and a lower incidence of extreme delta brush on electroencephalogram. Autoimmune encephalitis is possibly underdiagnosed in underdeveloped countries. Its outcome after treatment, however, appears to be similarly favorable in Latin American patients as has been reported in developed countries based on available case reports and case series. Regional specificities in the manifestation of autoimmune encephalitis could be related to epidemiologic factors, such as the presence of different triggers and different genetic and immunologic background, that need to be studied by future research.
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