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Abstract
While autoimmunity as a cause for peripheral nervous system disease gained acceptance among neurologists during the 1970s, the study of autoimmune encephalitis and related CNS diseases only came to the fore in 2004. In their overview (Section 1) the authors emphasise the importance of common-sense clinical recognition of autoimmune encephalitis and related disorders (subacute onset with rapid progression over 6–12 weeks being typical) and then building or refuting the diagnosis using several diagnostic tools (MRI, EEG, CSF-specific elevations in white cell count and oligoclonal bands, and antibody testing). In the immunopathogenesis chapter, and elsewhere, disease mechanisms underlying clinical presentations are reviewed and illustrated with cartoon-style figures, complemented by extensive neuropathological and tumour histological material from the authors’ archives and prior publications.