Enhancing the clinical diagnosis of the acute and subacute phases of autoimmune encephalitis and predicting the risk factors: the potential advantages of 18F-FDG PET/CT

BACKGROUND: 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-D-glucose positron emission tomography (18F-FDG PET) could help evaluate metabolic abnormalities by semi-quantitative measurement to identify autoimmune encephalitis (AE). Few studies have been conducted to analyze the prognostic factors of AE. The study aimed to explore the values of diagnosis and treatment evaluation by 18F-FDG PET and preliminarily discussed the potential value in predicting the prognosis of AE patients. METHODS: AE patients underwent 18F-FDG PET/CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). There were two steps to analyse 18F-FDG PET imaging data. The first step was visual assessment. The second step was to analyse 18F-FDG PET parameters using Scenium software (Siemens Molecular Imaging Ltd). The mean standardized uptake value (SUV(mean)) and maximum standardized uptake value (SUV(max)) of brain relative regional metabolism (BRRM) were quantified in the case and control groups according to the anatomical automatic labeling (AAL) partition. The main statistical method was the Kruskal–Wallis test. Finally, the simple linear regression method was used to analyse the relationships between 18F-FDG PET parameters and the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores before and after treatment. RESULTS: The results on 18F-FDG PET showed that visual assessment abnormalities were in the mesial temporal lobe (MTL) (70.8%), (mainly infringing on the hippocampus and amygdala), basal ganglia (62.5%), frontal lobes (37.5%), occipital lobes (29.2%), and parietal lobes (12.5%). The positive rate of abnormalities on 18F-FDG PET was more sensitive than that on MRI (95.5% vs 32.2%, p = 0.001). The number of lesions on PET was positively correlated with the mRS scores before and after treatment, and the correlation before treatment was more significant. Before treatment, the SUV(mean) of the left occipital lobe was the most remarkable (SUV(mean), R(2) = 0.082, p > 0.05) factor associated with the mRS score, and the correlation was negative. With regard to prognosis, the SUV(max) of the MTL was the most notable (R(2) = 0.1471, p > 0.05) factor associated with the mRS score after treatment, and the correlation was positive. CONCLUSIONS: 18F-FDG PET could be more sensitive and informative than MRI in the early phases of AE. The common pattern of AE was high MTL metabolism on 18F-FDG PET, which was associated with hypometabolism of the occipital lobe, and the number of lesions on PET before treatment may be significant factors in assessing disease severity. The SUV(max) of MTL hypermetabolism may serve as a prognostic biomarker in AE. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12880-023-01148-6.