Footnotes

• Contributors PM contributed to study conception, data collection, design, analysis, writing of the first draft and revising the manuscript for important intellectual content. BL, ST, TM, PG, CJC, VB, BF and AV contributed to data collection, analysis, review of the first draft and revising the manuscript for important intellectual content.

• Funding PG was supported by a fellowship grant from Myaware (UK).

• Competing interests Bethan Lang and Angela Vincent are co-applicants and receive royalties on patent application WO/2010/046716 entitled ‘Neurological Autoimmune Disorders’. The patent has been licensed to Euroimmun AG for the development of assays for LGI1 and other VGKC-complex antibodies. All other authors have no conflicts of interests.

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

• Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.