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Table 4 Clinical symptoms and findings of patients with encephalitis compared to patients with encephalopathy of other cause

From: To what extent can clinical characteristics be used to distinguish encephalitis from encephalopathy of other causes? Results from a prospective observational study

Characteristicsa

Encephalitis (group A)

Encephalopathy (group B)

p-value

Age, years

49 (±21)

57 (±21)

0.119

Gender, male

6/19 (32)

58/ 117 (50)

0.145

Duration of hospital stay, days

20 (10–37)

8 (4–17))

0.001

ICU

10/19 (53)

81/117 (69)

0.154

Death during hospitalization

3/19 (16)

10/117 (9)

0.326

No of patients with CNS symptoms < 24 hrsb

8/17 (47)

68/101 (67)

0.106

Immunodeficiency

4/19 (21)

28/ 117 (24)

0.784

Prodromal sicknessc

14/19 (74)

75/109 (69)

0.670

Travel within 6 months

8/18 (44)

17/100 (17)

0.009

Headache

12/19 (63)

41/ 90 (46)

0.163

Photophobia

6/17 (35)

16/ 70 (23)

0.290

Nausea

13/16 (81)

35/ 81 (43)

0.005

Personality changed

9/ 19 (47)

25/105 (24)

0.034

Confusiond

15/19 (79)

62/106 (59)

0.091

Seizuresd

5/18 (28)

29/ 105 (28)

0.989

Fever

14/19 (74)

55/117 (47)

0.031

Focal neurology

9/18 (50)

23/ 99 (23)

0.019

GCSe

14 (12–14)

13 (10–14)

0.219

GCS ≤14

16/18 (89)

90/114 (79)

0.324

GCS ≤8

1/18 (6)

27/114 (24)

0.080

Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)

140 (±28)

132 (±28)

0.275

Respiratory rate (/min)

19 (±6)

21(±7)

0.112

MRI findings suggesting encephalitis

8/17 (47)

1/63 (2)

< 0.001

EEG findings indicative of encephalitis

11/15 (73)

3/61 (3)

< 0.001

  1. a Data are presented as n/N (%), median (IQR) or mean (±SD). Significant differences in bold. b Patient’s description on how long they had been suffering from CNS symptoms before admission. c Prodromal sickness: symptoms before onset of CNS symptoms. d Observed/described either by patients, relatives or treating physician. e GCS at the day of LP, for 17 patients who were intubated before LP the GCS closest to intubation is registered, 4 patients had their LP > 24 h after intubation (=missing data). Also tested but not found to be relevant or not statistically significant: alcohol use, smoking habits, neck stiffness, illness among close relatives, vomiting, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate