In the medical literature, encephalitis refers to a whole group of diseases manifested by inflammatory processes in the brain. The disease is characterized by severe symptoms and can have a variety of causes, such as 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. In this article, we will consider anti-receptor encephalitis.
What is encephalitis?
Encephalitis causes various pathological disorders in the body and leads 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 caused by exposure to a toxic substance;
- autoimmune encephalitis.
Disease affects different parts of the brain. Inflammation can be localized in its cortex, subcortex or cerebellum. Each type has its own signs, symptoms, and treatments.
What is anti-receptor encephalitis? More on that later.
Infectious and bacterial inflammation
The factors that cause infectious encephalitis are viruses and bacteria. For example, the herpes virus, HIV infection, encephalitis virus, tuberculosis bacteria, streptococcus and staphylococcus aureus, toxoplasma. In addition, tick-borne encephalitis is a serious problem. This is a viral disease, the carrier 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 almost impossible to treat.
How does anti-receptor encephalitis manifest itself? Let's talk in more detail.
Autoimmune diseases
There is also a group of encephalitis, which are 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 the work of the peripheral nervous system. In addition to dementia, the disease is accompanied by paralysis and epileptic-like seizures. Such diseases include, for example, limbic encephalitis. The disease causes an autoimmune response of the body to the presence of cancer cells or a disease that is infectious or viral in nature. The rate of development of limbic encephalitis divides the disease into acute and subacute forms. The causes of anti-receptor encephalitis are discussed below.
Acute Syndrome
In an acute syndrome, the development of the disease occurs rapidly over three to five days. If you do not take urgent measures, then death occurs very quickly. In the subacute course of the disease, the first signs become noticeable after a few weeks from the initial moment of the development of the pathology. These conditions are characterized by the following symptoms:
- memory disorder;
- cognitive disorders;
- epileptic seizures;
- mental disorders (high levels of anxiety, depression, agitation);
- behavioral disorders.
In addition, clear signs are: progressive dementia, sleep disturbances, epileptic seizures withhallucinations. It is not uncommon for autoimmune brain damage to be correlated with the presence of cancer. Typically, this encephalitis is caused by lung cancer.
Anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis
This is an autoimmune disease that affects young women more. In males, the 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 who were diagnosed with this pathology suffered from mental disorders (lack of coherent speech, impaired consciousness).
In addition, a characteristic symptom of anti-receptor encephalitis is impaired short-term memory and muscle function. For example, many patients experienced unreasonable contraction of the abdominal muscles, as well as convulsive movements of the legs or arms.
Approximately half of the examined patients were diagnosed with ovarian cancer. However, there are cases when the patient does not have oncology. Moreover, there have been cases of diagnosis of anti-receptor encephalitis in children who do not suffer from such diseases. They spontaneously appear and begin to actively develop antibodies associated with certain brain structures, which are called NMDA receptors. Antibodies are fixed and block receptors, which in turn causes mental disorders, movement disorders and epileptic seizures. All thisindicates that in many cases doctors cannot determine the exact cause of the disease. It should be noted that this disease, in principle, was able to identify and learned to diagnose no more than ten years ago. The symptoms and treatment of anti-receptor encephalitis are interrelated.
Diagnosis
An experienced doctor, who is not the first time faced with such pathologies, will have suspicions even at the stage of examining the patient. To make an accurate diagnosis, it is necessary to conduct additional studies. 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, but will not help identify the cause of the disease.
In case of autoimmune diseases, including suspected anti-receptor encephalitis (we considered the causes of the disease), an analysis is made of the presence of antibodies to the NMDA receptor. In some situations, an analysis of cerebrospinal fluid and a biopsy of the brain are prescribed. A biopsy is prescribed only as a last resort, when other methods for identifying 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, so in the absence of proper experience from the doctor, the patient may end up in a psychiatric clinic due to an incorrect diagnosis. The lack of necessary treatment leads to psychiatric abnormalities, 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 necessary medicines for treatment, a vegetative state develops very quickly, and a third of patients die.
Treatment of anti-receptor encephalitis
To make a correct diagnosis, first of all, the patient is referred for examination and consultation with a neurologist. The disease is diagnosed when certain antibodies are present in the blood. An examination by an oncologist is also required to rule out a misdiagnosis. With timely treatment and properly built oncological treatment, in most cases it is possible to achieve stable and long-term remission. Also, good results are achieved in the treatment of immunomodulators. But this type of treatment is available only if the suspicions of oncology turned out to be groundless.
To reduce psychiatric symptoms, patients are prescribed drugs with a sedative effect. They calm and normalize sleep. With the appearance and repeated repetition of seizures, antispasmodic drugs are prescribed. Removal of acute inflammation is achieved with the help of corticosteroids. They are administered intramuscularly, and the duration of the course of treatment is prescribed by the doctor.
Anti-prescription encephalitis is almost impossible to cure completely. Treatment helps stop 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 givesquite stable result, and 70% of patients recover completely. How can anti-receptor encephalitis of the brain be prevented?
Prevention
From childhood, we know that you need to go to the forest in closed clothes, which prevents ticks from getting on 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 autoimmune brain diseases, including anti-prescription encephalitis, the development of such pathologies cannot be prevented.
Conclusion
According to available data, almost half of patients suffering from anti-receptor encephalitis recover completely. A third of patients have mild residual effects, and a small proportion of patients suffer from serious complications. About 10% of patients died.
Therefore, it must be emphasized once again that if a tumor is detected at an early stage and removed, the functions of the body 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.
