The diagnostic conundrum and treatment dilemma of a patient with a rapidly progressive encephalopathy

Non-infectious meningitis and CNS demyelinating diseases: A conceptual review

Many cases of aseptic meningitis or meningoencephalitis, unresponsive to antimicrobial treatments, have been reported recently in patients with established/new-onset central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory demyelinating diseases (CNSIDDs). Given the higher probability of infectious etiologies, CNSIDDs are rarely considered among the differentials in meningitis or meningoencephalitis cases. We gathered and tabulated cases of non-infectious, steroid-responsive meningitis or meningoencephalitis associated with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) and myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein-associated disease (MOGAD). This conceptual review highlights the need to bolster routine infectious workups with immunological workups in cases of meningoencephalitis or meningitis where potential autoimmune etiologies can be suspected. Although differentiating CNSIDDs with meningeal involvement from infectious meningitis may not substantially affect acute treatment strategies, long-term management and follow-up of the two are entirely different. We also discuss future research directions and hypotheses on how CNSIDDs may be associated with meningitis-like presentations, e.g. overlapping glial fibrillary acidic protein astrocytopathy or autoimmune encephalitis, alterations in regulatory T-helper cells function, and undetected viral agents.

Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis: Efficacy of Treatment for Male Patients and miRNA Biomarker

BACKGROUND

Anti-N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor encephalitis is an acute form of encephalitis. Treatments for the anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis usually include steroids, intravenous immunoglobulin, plasma exchange, plasmapheresis, rituximab, cyclophosphamide and tumor resection.

OBJECTIVE

We aimed to compare the efficacy of the treatments including intravenous immunoglobulin, plasma exchange, plasmapheresis, rituximab or cyclophosphamide for male anti- NMDA receptor encephalitis patients without tumor and to discuss potential biomarkers for this disease.

METHOD

The Fisher exact test and the contingency table analysis were used to analyze the treatment efficacy for 43 male and 76 female patients. In addition, a hierarchical tree method was adopted to analyze the difference in the treatment efficacy between male and female patients.

RESULTS

The p-values of testing whether the efficacy rate of plasmapheresis (or plasma exchange) for the male patient is greater than a threshold are significantly different from the pvalues for the other two treatments. In addition, the hierarchical tree method shows that the treatment strategy associating with early recovery is different for male and female patients.

CONCLUSION

The results revealed that the efficacy rate of plasmapheresis (or plasma exchange) is not inferior to that of intravenous immunoglobulin and rituximab (or cyclophosphamide) for male patients without tumor. In addition, B-cell attracting C-X-C motif chemokine 13 (CXCL13) and microRNA let-7b have the potential to be the treatment response biomarkers for anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis. They may not be useful prognostic biomarkers for this encephalitis unless they are not biomarkers for other autoimmune encephalitides.