Prognosis of Japanese encephalitis: a multivariate analysis

Abstract

To evaluate the role of various clinical neurophysiological laboratory and radiological parameters in the prognosis of Japanese encephalitis (JE), 28 patients were prospectively evaluated. Their age ranged between two and 54 years, with eight of them being female and 11 children. The outcome was defined, at the end of a six-month period, as being poor (bed-ridden), partial (partial dependence for activity for daily life) and complete recovery (independent for activities of daily life). A number of clinical (age, degree of coma, decerebration or decortication and reflex changes), laboratory (CSF cell and protein content, and haemagglutination inhibition titre in the serum), neurophysiological (EEG, EMG, sensory and motor evoked potentials) and the extent of radiological changes were subjected to stepwise multivariate logistic regression analysis. By the end of six months, four patients had died, seven had poor, ten partial and seven had complete recovery. The best set of predictors of outcome included age, Glasgow coma scale and reflex changes.