Fig. 4

Effects of repeated first-line treatment and rituximab initiating opportunity on clinical outcome in different subgroups of rituximab cohort. Further analysis showed that, compared to single first-line treatment combined with rituximab subgroup, repeated first-line combined with rituximab presented no significant difference in CASE (A), mRS (B) or MMSE (C) evaluation at baseline and each visit. While compared to the subgroup with delayed initiation of rituximab over 3 months, early initiation of rituximab within 3 months led to a marked improvement in CASE (D) and MMSE (F) assessment at last follow-up, respectively, but still showed no significance in mRS scores (E) at baseline and each visit. CASE: the Clinical Assessment Scale for Autoimmune Encephalitis, mRS: the modified Rankin scale, MMSE: the Mini-mental State Examination, 1st visit: at discharge after treatment, 2nd visit: 6 months later, 3rd visit: 12 months later, 4th visit: last follow-up with at least > 12 months. *p < 0.05