%0 Journal Article
%A Wickel, Jonathan
%A Chung, Ha-Yeun
%A Konen, Franz Felix
%A Rössling, Rosa
%A Bertolini, Annikki
%A Kraft, Andrea
%A Siebenbrodt, Kai
%A Bittner, Stefan
%A Juranek, Aleksandra
%A Brokbals, Mosche
%A Räuber, Saskia
%A Klausewitz, Jaqueline
%A Pfeffer, Lena K
%A Scherag, André
%A Menge, Til
%A Finke, Alexander
%A Doppler, Kathrin
%A Urbanek, Christian
%A Bien, Christian G
%A Seifert-Held, Thomas
%A Hoffmann, Frank
%A Wandinger, Klaus-Peter
%A Tauber, Simone C
%A Süße, Marie
%A Lewerenz, Jan
%A Madlener, Marie
%A Rostasy, Kevin
%A Prüss, Harald
%A Sühs, Kurt-Wolfram
%A Kümpfel, Tania
%A Thaler, Franziska S
%A Leypoldt, Frank
%A Geis, Christian
%T Reduced Hospital Incidence of Autoimmune Encephalitis During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
%J Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation ; official journal of the American Academy of Neurology
%V 13
%N 3
%@ 2332-7812
%C Philadelphia, Pa.
%I Wolters Kluwer
%M DZNE-2026-00194
%P e200555
%D 2026
%X The aim of this study was to analyze changes in hospital incidence cases and disease severity of autoantibody-associated autoimmune encephalitis (AE) during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with the prepandemic period.A retrospective multicenter study analyzed data from 24 centers within the German Network for Research on Autoimmune Encephalitis (GENERATE). Patients with a new diagnosis of definite antibody-positive autoimmune encephalitis from 2017 to 2022 were included and divided into prepandemic (2017-2019) and pandemic (2020-2022) periods.Among 392 patients, 227 were diagnosed before and 165 during the pandemic (mean 9.5 vs 6.9 per site, p = 0.04). A reduction was observed in cases with antibodies to neuronal surface antigens (174 vs 122 cases; mean 7.3 vs 5.1 per site, p = 0.02), while cases with antibodies against intracellular antigens remained stable (p = 0.40). No differences were observed in disease severity, age, or sex distribution between periods.This study provides clinical data on antibody-positive AE before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings do not support the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 infection triggers autoantibody-associated AE or increases disease severity.
%K Humans
%K COVID-19: epidemiology
%K Male
%K Female
%K Middle Aged
%K Retrospective Studies
%K Incidence
%K Encephalitis: epidemiology
%K Encephalitis: immunology
%K Aged
%K Adult
%K Germany: epidemiology
%K Hashimoto Disease: epidemiology
%K Hashimoto Disease: immunology
%K Autoantibodies: blood
%K Severity of Illness Index
%K Young Adult
%K Aged, 80 and over
%K Hospitalization: statistics & numerical data
%K Autoantibodies (NLM Chemicals)
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:41687038
%R 10.1212/NXI.0000000000200555
%U https://pub.dzne.de/record/285252