Babinski’s sign, facial weakness, pupil abnormalities, bulbar palsy, and nystagmus are also commonly found.
[1] The clinical features and course of the condition, the associated auto-antibodies against relevant antigens, and the response to treatment, all suggest that Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis is an autoimmune disease.
However, each of these criteria fails to fit a substantial proportion of patients, and there is no single test or feature which is diagnostic of Bickerstaff brainstem encephalitis.
It was originally thought[5] that raised CSF protein without pleocytosis ('albuminocytological dissociation') was a characteristic feature, as it is in Guillain–Barré syndrome, but this has not been supported in more recent work.
[8] Most patients reported in the literature have been given treatments suitable for autoimmune neurological diseases, such as, plasmapheresis and/or intravenous immunoglobulin, and most have made a good recovery.