Rinsho Shinkeigaku (Clinical Neurology)

The 48th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Neurology

A spectrum of neurological diseases with anti-VGKC antibody

Kimiyoshi Arimura, M.D., Osamu Watanabe, M.D. and Tatsui Nagado, M.D.

Department of Neurology and Geriatrics, Kagoshima University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences

Anti-VGKC antibody causing peripheral nerve hyperexcitability is already an established clinical entity. Recently, many patients with non-herpetic limbic encephalitis (NHLE) with anti-VGKC antibody have been reported. The characteristic clinical features are low serum Na+ concentration and good response to immunotherapy. Anti-VGK antibody positive NHLE is relatively frequent among immune-mediated NHLE. It is important to know that this disease is responsive to immunotherapy. Furthermore, anti-VGKC antibody is also positive in some intractable epilepsies. These findings suggest that anti-VGKC is correlated with hyperexcitability in both the peripheral and central nervous system and that the spectrum of anti-VGKC antibody syndrome is now expanding.

(CLINICA NEUROL, 47: 845|847, 2007)
key words: limbic encephalitis, voltage-gated potassium channel, antibody, immunotherapy

(Received: 16-May-07)