TY  - JOUR
AU  - Wickel, Jonathan
AU  - Chung, Ha-Yeun
AU  - Konen, Franz Felix
AU  - Rössling, Rosa
AU  - Bertolini, Annikki
AU  - Kraft, Andrea
AU  - Siebenbrodt, Kai
AU  - Bittner, Stefan
AU  - Juranek, Aleksandra
AU  - Brokbals, Mosche
AU  - Räuber, Saskia
AU  - Klausewitz, Jaqueline
AU  - Pfeffer, Lena K
AU  - Scherag, André
AU  - Menge, Til
AU  - Finke, Alexander
AU  - Doppler, Kathrin
AU  - Urbanek, Christian
AU  - Bien, Christian G
AU  - Seifert-Held, Thomas
AU  - Hoffmann, Frank
AU  - Wandinger, Klaus-Peter
AU  - Tauber, Simone C
AU  - Süße, Marie
AU  - Lewerenz, Jan
AU  - Madlener, Marie
AU  - Rostasy, Kevin
AU  - Prüss, Harald
AU  - Sühs, Kurt-Wolfram
AU  - Kümpfel, Tania
AU  - Thaler, Franziska S
AU  - Leypoldt, Frank
AU  - Geis, Christian
TI  - Reduced Hospital Incidence of Autoimmune Encephalitis During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
JO  - Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation ; official journal of the American Academy of Neurology
VL  - 13
IS  - 3
SN  - 2332-7812
CY  - Philadelphia, Pa.
PB  - Wolters Kluwer
M1  - DZNE-2026-00194
SP  - e200555
PY  - 2026
AB  - 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.
KW  - Humans
KW  - COVID-19: epidemiology
KW  - Male
KW  - Female
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Retrospective Studies
KW  - Incidence
KW  - Encephalitis: epidemiology
KW  - Encephalitis: immunology
KW  - Aged
KW  - Adult
KW  - Germany: epidemiology
KW  - Hashimoto Disease: epidemiology
KW  - Hashimoto Disease: immunology
KW  - Autoantibodies: blood
KW  - Severity of Illness Index
KW  - Young Adult
KW  - Aged, 80 and over
KW  - Hospitalization: statistics & numerical data
KW  - Autoantibodies (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:41687038
DO  - DOI:10.1212/NXI.0000000000200555
UR  - https://pub.dzne.de/record/285252
ER  -