Evaluating the Brighton Collaboration case definitions, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, by systematic analysis of 255 clinical cases

Barbara Rath; Manya Magnus; Ulrich Heininger

doi:10.1016/j.vaccine.2010.02.053

Evaluating the Brighton Collaboration case definitions, aseptic meningitis, encephalitis, myelitis, and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, by systematic analysis of 255 clinical cases

Vaccine. 2010 Apr 26;28(19):3488-95. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2010.02.053. Epub 2010 Mar 1.

Authors

Barbara Rath¹, Manya Magnus, Ulrich Heininger

Affiliation

¹ Charité University Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, 13553 Berlin, Germany. Barbara.Rath@gmail.com

PMID: 20197145
DOI: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2010.02.053

Abstract

Aims: Brighton Collaboration (BC) case definitions are independent from presumed causes or triggers, hence should be applicable in routine clinical settings.

Scope: 255 cases with discharge diagnoses of aseptic meningitis (ASM; n=164), encephalitis (ENC; n=48), myelitis (MYE; n=8), ADEM (n=10), or bacterial meningitis (BM; n=59; control group) were tested against the BC case definitions ASM, ENC, MYE, and ADEM. Overall rates of agreement between BC criteria and discharge diagnoses were 70%, 78%, 97%, and 97% for ASM, ENC, MYE and ADEM, respectively.

Conclusion: BC case definitions are easily applicable in retrospective chart reviews allowing causality assessments with minimal selection bias.

Publication types

Evaluation Study
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Algorithms
Encephalitis / diagnosis*
Encephalomyelitis, Acute Disseminated / diagnosis*
Humans
Meningitis, Aseptic / diagnosis*
Meningitis, Bacterial / diagnosis*
Myelitis / diagnosis*
Sensitivity and Specificity