Observational studyBMC infectious diseases2019
To what extent can clinical characteristics be used to distinguish encephalitis from encephalopathy of other causes? Results from a prospective observational study.
Observational study in BMC infectious diseases, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 25 citations in OpenAlex.
- Influenza Associated Encephalopathy, Encephalitis, and Acute Necrotizing Encephalitis in Adults: A Scoping Review of 83 Cases.Neurology international · 2026Review
- Encephalitis: Predictive Role of Clinical and Diagnostic Data on Outcome-A Monocentric Study.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Hashimoto's Encephalopathy: Clinical Features, Therapeutic Strategies, and Rehabilitation Approaches.Biomedicines · 2025Review
- A Retrospective Sero-Surveillance Study for Antibodies Against Tick-Borne Encephalitis Virus in Norway.Viruses · 2025Article
- Viruses and the Brain-A Relationship Prone to Trouble.Viruses · 2025Review
- Exploring the extrachromosomal plasmid rDNA of Naegleria fowleri AY27 genotype II: A human brain-eating amoeba via high-throughput sequencing.BMC medical genomics · 2024Article
- Markers of blood-brain barrier disruption increase early and persistently in COVID-19 patients with neurological manifestations.Frontiers in immunology · 2022Article
- Herpesvirus encephalitis diagnosed by polymerase chain reaction at the National Institute of Neurology of Mexico.Journal of neurovirology · 2021Observational
- Comparisons Between Infectious and Autoimmune Encephalitis: Clinical Signs, Biochemistry, Blood Counts, and Imaging Findings.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2020Article
- Understanding and managing acute encephalitis.F1000Research · 2020Review
- Encephalitis and aseptic meningitis: short-term and long-term outcome, quality of life and neuropsychological functioning.Scientific reports · 2019Observational
- Article
- Changing Spectrum of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome in India and a Syndromic Approach.Annals of Indian Academy of NeurologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundRecognizing patients with encephalitis may be challenging. The cardinal symptom, encephalopathy, has a wide array of differential diagnoses. In this prospective study we aimed to explore the etiology of encephalitis and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of symptoms and clinical findings in patients with encephalitis in an encephalopathic population.
methodsPatients with acute onset of encephalopathy (n = 136) were prospectively enrolled from January 2014-December 2015 at Oslo University Hospital, Ullevaal. Clinical and biochemical characteristics of patients who met the case definition of encephalitis were compared to patients with encephalopathy of other causes.
resultsAmong 136 patients with encephalopathy, 19 (14%) met the case-definition of encephalitis. For 117 patients other causes of encephalopathy were found, infection outside the CNS was the most common differential diagnosis. Etiology of encephalitis was confirmed in 53% (4 bacterial, 4 viral, 1 parasitic, and 1 autoimmune). Personality change, nausea, fever, focal neurology, recent travel history, and low inflammation markers were significantly more abundant in patients with encephalitis, but the diagnostic accuracy for individual parameters were low (area under the curve (AUC) < 0.7). The combination of fever (OR = 6.6, 95% CI, 1.6-28), nausea (OR = 8.9, 95% CI, 1.7-46) and a normal level of ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate < 17 mm/hr, OR = 6.9, 95% CI, 1.5-33) was significant in multivariate analysis with an AUC (area under the curve) of 0.85 (95% CI, 0.76-0.94). Moderately increased pleocytosis in CSF (5-100 × 10
conclusionsThere is a wide diversity in differential diagnoses in patients with encephalopathy, and no single symptom or finding can be used to predict encephalitis with high accuracy in this group. The combination of fever, nausea and a low ESR in an encephalopathic population, increased the diagnostic accuracy of encephalitis compared to solitary parameters. The triad could be a useful clinical tool for early diagnosis of encephalitis, and these patients should be considered for further diagnostics such as lumbar puncture (LP).
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.