Evidence map›Paper›PMID 41687038›Full record

ArticleNeurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation2026

Reduced Hospital Incidence of Autoimmune Encephalitis During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Jonathan Wickel, Ha-Yeun Chung, Franz Felix Konen, Rosa Rössling, Annikki Bertolini, Andrea Kraft, Kai Siebenbrodt, Stefan Bittner, Aleksandra Juranek, Mosche Brokbals and 24 more

Abstract readMulticenter Study
In one paragraph

Article in Neurology(R) neuroimmunology & neuroinflammation, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
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1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

34 authors.

Jonathan WickelSection of Translational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-5854-3759
Ha-Yeun ChungSection of Translational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Germany.
Franz Felix KonenDepartment of Neurology, Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-8609-5674
Rosa RösslingDepartment of Neurology and Experimental Neurology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2253-1454
Annikki BertoliniDepartment of Pediatric Neurology, Witten/Herdecke University, Datteln, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-4196-022X
Andrea KraftDepartment of Neurology, Martha-Maria Hospital Halle, Germany.ORCID 0009-0001-3748-1798
Kai SiebenbrodtEpilepsy Center Frankfurt Rhine-Main and Department of Neurology, Center of Neurology and Neurosurgery, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-3827-4245
Stefan BittnerDepartment of Neurology, Focus Program Translational Neuroscience (FTN) and Immunotherapy (FZI), Rhine-Main Neuroscience Network (rmn2), University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2179-3655
Aleksandra JuranekDepartment of Neurology and Neurorehabilitation, Klinikum Osnabrueck-Academic Teaching Hospital of the WWU Muenster, Osnabrueck, Germany.
Mosche BrokbalsDepartment of Neurology, Alfried-Krupp-Krankenhaus Essen, Germany.
Saskia RäuberDepartment of Neurology, Medical Faculty and University Hospital Düsseldorf, Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-8901-5572
Jaqueline KlausewitzDepartment of Neurology, University Hospital Bochum, Germany.ORCID 0009-0009-9880-1191
Lena K PfefferInstitute of Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis, Center for Molecular Neurobiology Hamburg, Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf; Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-3057-6492
André ScheragInstitute of Medical Statistics, Computer and Data Sciences, Jena University Hospital - Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Germany.
Til MengeDepartment of Neurology, Center for Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, LVR-Klinikum, Heinrich-Heine-University Duesseldorf, Germany.
Alexander FinkeDepartment of Neurology, Hospital Lueneburg, Germany.
Kathrin DopplerDepartment of Neurology, University Hospital Würzburg, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2883-0009
Christian UrbanekDepartment of Neurology, Hospital Ludwigshafen, Germany.
Christian G BienDepartment of Epileptology, Krankenhaus Mara, Bethel Epilepsy Center, Medical School OWL, Bielefeld University, Germany.ORCID 0000-0003-2225-8654
Thomas Seifert-HeldDepartment of Neurology, Medical University of Graz, Austria.ORCID 0000-0001-8121-3662
Frank HoffmannDepartment of Neurology, Martha-Maria Hospital Halle, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-6242-6010
Klaus-Peter WandingerInstitute of Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel/Lübeck, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-5483-4276
Simone C TauberDepartment of Neurology, University Hospital RWTH Aachen, Germany.ORCID 0000-0001-9149-3071
Marie SüßeDepartment of Neurology, University Medicine Greifswald, Germany.
Jan LewerenzDepartment of Neurology, Ulm University, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-9272-529X
Marie MadlenerDepartment of Neurology, University of Cologne, Faculty of Medicine and University Hospital Cologne, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-6299-8238
Kevin RostasyDepartment of Pediatric Neurology, Witten/Herdecke University, Datteln, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-2180-5321
Harald PrüssDepartment of Neurology and Experimental Neurology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) Berlin, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-8283-7976
Kurt-Wolfram SühsDepartment of Neurology, Hannover Medical School (MHH), Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-8077-481X
Tania KümpfelInstitute of Clinical Neuroimmunology, University Hospital and Biomedical Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany; and.ORCID 0000-0001-7509-5268
Franziska S ThalerInstitute of Clinical Neuroimmunology, University Hospital and Biomedical Center, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany; and.ORCID 0000-0001-6548-0410
Frank LeypoldtInstitute of Clinical Chemistry, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Kiel/Lübeck, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-8972-515X
Christian GeisSection of Translational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, Germany.ORCID 0000-0002-9859-581X
GENERATE study group

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesThe 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.

methodsA 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.

resultsAmong 392 patients, 227 were diagnosed before and 165 during the pandemic (mean 9.5 vs 6.9 per site, DISCUSSION: 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.

Indexed as

AutoantibodiesCOVID-19EncephalitisHashimoto DiseaseAdultAgedFemaleGermanyHumansIncidenceMaleMiddle AgedRetrospective StudiesSeverity of Illness IndexAutoantibodies

Identifiers

PMID41687038
PMCPMC12910816

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