Non-herpetic acute limbic encephalitis

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Non-herpetic acute limbic encephalitis (non-herpetic ALE) is regarded as a new subgroup of limbic encephalitis. In the present study, clinical findings and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) cytokines in non-herpetic ALE were investigated. For adult inpatients in our hospital and related hospitals from 1996 to 2001, non-herpetic ALE was examined according to our criteria. In CSF samples of the 6 patients with non-herpetic ALE and 6 patients with herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE), the concentrations of TNF- α, IL-1β, IL-6, and IFN)- γ in CSF were determined with sandwich-type ELISA kits. Six patients were newly diagnosed with non-herpetic ALE in this study. These patients revealed uniformly acute limbic encephalitis, and MRI abnormalities in the bilateral hippocampi and amygdala. Levels of CSF IL-6 and IFN- γ in patients with non-herpetic ALE were significantly lower than those in patients with HSE, probably reflecting an immunological process.