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

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.