Footnotes

• Contributors JJL, VAL and SJP: study concept and design. JJL and SJP: drafting of the manuscript. SJP: study supervision. All authors: acquisition, analysis or interpretation of data; critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content.

• Funding SJP has provided consultation to Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Medimmune and Chugai Pharma USA, but has received no personal fees or personal compensation for these consulting activities. All compensation for consulting activities is paid directly to Mayo Clinic. SJP has received research support from Alexion, Medimmune and Grifols. AMcK received research support from and has consulted for Euroimmun, Medimmune and Grifols, but has not received personal compensation. CFL has received funding support from Biogen, Novartis, Mallinkrodt and shares in royalties from marketing kits for detecting AQP4 autoantibody. BP has received compensation for consulting from Novartis. BP is currently employed by Biogen.

• Competing interests None declared.

• Ethics approval Mayo Clinic Institutional Review Board.

• Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.