Immune-Mediated Diseases of the Central Nervous System
November 2016
in “
Pediatric Clinics of North America
”
TLDR The document explains the difficulty in diagnosing and treating brain diseases caused by the immune system and stresses the need for quick and accurate tests.
The document from 2017 provides an overview of the challenges in diagnosing and managing various immune-mediated diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), such as Aicardi-Goutières syndrome, cerebral folate deficiency, hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH), macrophage activation syndrome (MAS), lupus, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome (APLS), NMDA receptor encephalitis, limbic encephalitis, Rasmussen encephalitis, steroid-responsive encephalopathy associated with autoimmune thyroiditis (SREAT), and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM). It discusses the importance of a precise phenotype definition, exclusion of infectious processes, and a multidisciplinary approach for diagnosis. The document also details clinical presentations, diagnostic criteria, neuroimaging findings, and treatment options for these conditions, emphasizing the necessity of rapid and sensitive diagnostic strategies for acute management and specific results for refining diagnoses. It does not provide specific numbers of people in any study, so the strength of the studies mentioned cannot be assessed.