Autoimmune epilepsy: peculiarity of the course in childhood (literature review) | Ukrainian Medical Journal

Understanding of autoimmune epilepsy has evolved significantly over the past decades with the discovery of several neuronal autoantibodies and improvement of understanding of these immune-mediated conditions. It has been shown that some patients with epilepsy of unknown etiology have an autoimmune cause. In most patients with autoimmune epilepsy, the disease debuts acutely, with the onset of refractory to conventional antiepileptic therapy seizures, along with subacute progressive decline in cognitive function, behavioral and/or mental disturbances. Autoimmune epilepsy in children is associated with neuronal antibodies, mostly in the structure of autoimmune encephalitis, which are rare conditions (mostly anti-NMDAR-encephalitis and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis), which have better prognosis with timely introduced immunosuppressive treatment. An overview of modern literature data is presented.

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