In the medical literature, encephalitis refers to a whole group of diseases manifested by inflammatory processes of the brain. The disease is characterized by severe symptoms and can have a number of reasons, for example, an autoimmune process that causes anti-receptor encephalitis, or the presence of certain bacteria and viruses. Inflammatory processes of the brain require immediate qualified treatment, otherwise the risk of irreversible consequences or death is too high. This article will discuss anti-receptor encephalitis.
What is encephalitis?
Encephalitis causes various pathological disorders in the body and lead to the formation of dementia (dementia). The disease can affect not only the brain, but also part of the internal organs and joints.
Pathological conditions can be caused by a number of reasons. According to the factors provoking the disease, the following types of encephalitis are distinguished:
- inflammation caused by infection;
- bacterial or fungal encephalitis;
- a disease provoked by exposure to an organism of a toxic substance;
- autoimmune encephalitis.
The disease affects different parts of the brain. Inflammation can be localized in its cortex, subcortex, or cerebellum. Each type is distinguished by its own signs, symptoms and treatment methods.
What is anti-receptor encephalitis? About it further.
Infectious and bacterial inflammation
Factors causing infectious encephalitis are viruses and bacteria. For example, herpes virus, HIV infection, encephalitis virus, tuberculosis bacteria, streptococcus and staphylococcus, toxoplasma. In addition, tick-borne encephalitis is a serious problem. This is a viral disease, the distributor of which are some types of ticks. The virus enters the body after an insect bite.
However, with tick-borne encephalitis, the brain is not always affected, in 50% of cases the patient experiences only fever. Japanese encephalitis also belongs to viral species . The disease is very dangerous and in most cases ends in death. This type of encephalitis is characterized by a rapid course, a few days after infection the patient falls into a coma. Herpes encephalitis is fatal in nine out of ten cases; it is practically untreatable.
How does anti-receptor encephalitis manifest? We will tell in more detail.
Autoimmune diseases
There is also a group of encephalitis that is caused by autoimmune processes in the body. In this case, the patient's own immune cells begin to attack the brain. Diseases of this nature are extremely difficult to treat, cause dementia, lead to impaired brain activity and peripheral nervous system function. In addition to dementia, the disease is accompanied by paralysis and seizures similar to epileptic. For diseases of this kind include, for example, limbic encephalitis. The disease causes an autoimmune response of the body to the presence of cancer cells or a disease of an infectious or viral nature. The rate of development of limbic encephalitis divides the disease into an acute and subacute form. The causes of anti-receptor encephalitis are discussed below.
Acute syndrome
In acute syndrome, the development of the disease occurs rapidly over three to five days. If urgent measures are not taken, then death occurs very quickly. In the subacute course of the disease, the first signs become noticeable after several weeks from the initial moment of development of the pathology. These conditions are characterized by the following symptoms:
- impaired memory;
- cognitive impairment;
- epileptic seizures;
- mental disorders (high level of anxiety, depression, agitation);
- behavioral disorders.
In addition, obvious signs are: progressive dementia, sleep disturbances, epileptic seizures with hallucinations. Cases when autoimmune brain lesions are correlated with the presence of cancer are very common. Typically, such encephalitis is caused by lung cancer.
Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis
This is an autoimmune disease that affects young women more. In males, pathology is extremely rare. The features of this type of encephalitis include the presence of severe symptoms, which are expressed in serious psychoneurotic changes. That is why these patients are often diagnosed with schizophrenia instead of encephalitis. Women in whom this pathology was discovered suffered from mental disorders (lack of coherent speech, impaired consciousness).
In addition, a characteristic symptom of anti-receptor encephalitis is a violation of short-term memory and muscle function. For example, in many patients there was an unreasonable contraction of the abdominal muscles, as well as jerky movements of the legs or arms.
About half of the examined patients had ovarian cancer. However, there may be cases when the patient does not have oncology. Moreover, there have been cases of the diagnosis of anti-receptor encephalitis in children not suffering from such diseases. Antibodies associated with certain brain structures called NMDA receptors spontaneously appear and begin to develop actively in them. Antibodies are fixed and block receptors, which in turn causes mental disorders, motor disorders and epileptic seizures. All this indicates that in many cases, doctors can not determine the exact cause of the disease. It should be noted that, in principle, they managed to identify this disease and learned to diagnose it no more than ten years ago. Symptoms and treatment of anti-receptor encephalitis are interrelated.
Diagnostics
An experienced doctor who is not the first time encounters such pathologies will have suspicions even at the stage of examination of the patient. To make an accurate diagnosis, additional research is needed. As a rule, the appointment of magnetic resonance imaging is completely justified here. MRI will confirm or refute suspicions of inflammatory processes in the brain, however, it will not help to identify the cause of the disease.
For autoimmune diseases, including suspected anti-receptor encephalitis (we examined the causes of the disease), we analyze the presence of antibodies to the NMDA receptor. In some situations, cerebrospinal fluid analysis and a brain biopsy are prescribed. A biopsy is prescribed only as a last resort, when other methods to identify the cause of the disease are not informative. In this case, you can not do without consulting an oncologist.
Possible complications
Autoimmune diseases are difficult to diagnose, therefore, in the absence of proper experience with the doctor, the patient may be in a psychiatric clinic due to an incorrect diagnosis. The lack of necessary treatment leads to psychiatric disorders, which are often irreversible. In addition, there is a high probability that the patient may fall into a coma. If the patient does not take the medications necessary for treatment, the vegetative state develops very quickly, and a third of the patients die.
Treatment for anti-receptor encephalitis
To make a correct diagnosis, first of all, the patient is sent for examination and consultation to a neurologist. The disease is diagnosed in the presence of certain antibodies in the blood. To exclude an incorrect diagnosis, an oncologist examination is also required. With timely treatment and properly structured oncological treatment, in most cases it is possible to achieve persistent and prolonged remission. Good results are also achieved with immunomodulators. But this type of treatment is available only if the suspicion of oncology turned out to be baseless.
To reduce psychiatric symptoms, patients are prescribed drugs with a sedative effect. They calm and normalize sleep. With the appearance and repeated recurrence of seizures, spasmolytic drugs are prescribed. Removal of acute inflammation is achieved using corticosteroids. They are administered intramuscularly, and the duration of the course of treatment is prescribed by the doctor.
Anti-prescription encephalitis is practically not completely cured. Treatment helps stop the further progression of the disease and eliminates the development of neurological disorders. If the disease was caused by oncology, then the elimination of the tumor gives a very stable result, and 70% of patients recover completely. How can brain anti-receptor encephalitis be prevented?
Prevention
Since childhood, we know that you need to go to the forest in closed clothing, which excludes ticks from exposed skin. Such measures help in the prevention of viral and bacterial encephalitis. It is also important to contact medical institutions in a timely manner and follow the instructions of doctors. As for brain diseases of an autoimmune nature, including anti-prescription encephalitis, it is impossible to prevent the development of such pathologies.
Conclusion
According to available data, nearly half of patients suffering from anti-receptor encephalitis fully recover. A third of patients have mild residual effects, and a small proportion of patients suffer from serious complications. About 10% of patients died.
Therefore, we must once again emphasize that when a tumor is detected at an early stage and its removal, body functions are restored in full, that is, recovery occurs. All this allows us to conclude that it is necessary to consult a doctor at the first symptoms of the disease in order to increase the chance of a successful outcome.