Autoimmune Encephalitis and Related Disorders
In addition to demyelinating disorders, we offer comprehensive evaluation and care for other autoimmune and immune-mediated disorders that affect the central nervous system. These include autoimmune encephalitis, such as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, immune-mediated epilepsies (febrile infection-related epilepsy syndrome, Landau-Kleffner syndrome, Rasmussen encephalitis), and neurological complications of systemic autoimmune diseases or immune dysregulation.
Pediatric autoimmune encephalitis is a category of inflammatory brain disease characterized by a subacute decline in cognitive function and neuropsychiatric symptoms. These are often accompanied by new-onset seizures, movement disorders, encephalopathy, new-onset sleep disorders, catatonia, acute psychosis, and/or inability to perform activities of daily living. Treatment involves multidisciplinary care for immunotherapy management, symptom management (including sleep, headaches, psychiatric symptoms), and long-term neuropsychological monitoring.
Many of these disorders affect other parts of the body in addition to the central nervous system. Our team works closely with other specialists at Rady Children’s to provide the best care for your child. Depending on the specific disease, this may include specialists in epilepsy, psychiatry, rheumatology, infectious diseases, oncology, immunology, and genetics.
Our center is part of a multicenter prospective cohort study of the clinical features and biomarker identification for autoimmune encephalitis, Landau-Kleffner syndrome, and Rasmussen encephalitis (The CONquering Neuroimmunology and Epilepsies ConsorTium/CONNECT Registry).