Introduction: For more than a decade, NMDAR
autoimmune encephalitis has been studied and treated as a neurological condition, and good results have been achieve through immune
therapies. Apart from being well represented in the CNS,
NMDA receptors are currently known of and being studied in multiple non-neuronal cells with potential clinical significance. The association of NMDAR
autoimmune encephalitis with pregnancy is rare, and
hypokalemia is not mentioned. Methods: We present the case of a 30-year-old woman with NMDAR
autoimmune encephalitis in her 17th week of pregnancy associated with persistent
hypokalemia that had no apparent cause and resisted Kalium
chloride supplementation. A diagnostic work-up including clinical, laboratory, and imagistic examinations, was performed. The case was monitored between May and September 2016 at Neurology, SCJUT. Results: Severe
hypokalemia with normal serum
sodium levels persisted throughout the course of clinical manifestation of anti-NMDAR
autoimmune encephalitis. Conclusions: NMDAR
autoimmune encephalitis is under-diagnosed in its atypical clinical variants, and this disease's association with
hypokalemia is not mentioned in the literature. Still, it is of clinical importance because it attests to the implications of other organs/systems in the general autoimmune process of NMDAR
encephalitis, and it might change the way we address certain
psychiatric disorders by searching underlying organic conditions.