Fig. 3

A series of AE-associated scales, including CASE, mRS and MMSE, was compared in the rituximab cohort with combination of first-line and rituximab treatment, and in the control cohort with only first-line treatment, respectively. The distribution of evaluation was depicted at 5 time points: baseline before treatment; 1st visit at discharge after treatment; 2nd visit at 6 months later; 3rd visit at 12 months later; 4th visit at last follow-up with at least > 12 months. The line represented the change in scores dividing “favorable clinical outcome” of CASE scores ≤ 2, mRS scores ≤ 2 or MMSE scores ≥ 27. The results were applied to compare the distribution of CASE (A), mRS (B) and MMSE (C) scores in rituximab cohort, as well as CASE (D), mRS (E) and MMSE (F) scores in control cohort. CASE: the Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis, mRS: the modified Rankin scale, MMSE: the Mini-mental State Examination. ****p < 0.0001, ***p < 0.001, **p < 0.01 and *p < 0.05