Symptom: Encephalitis

Introduction: Encephalitis

Encephalitis is a serious infection of the brain. This section addresses what conditions encephalitis can be a symptom or complication of. For the symptoms of encephalitis itself, see encephalitis.

» Review Causes of Encephalitis: full list

Causes of Encephalitis

• Acanthamoeba - granulomatous amebic encephalitis (GAE)
• Actinomycosis
• Addington disease - encephalomyelitis
• Angiostrongyliasis
• Arbovirosis - encephalitis

See all 100 causes of Encephalitis

Causes of Types of Encephalitis:

Review the causes of these more specific types of Encephalitis:

• Meningoencephalitis (68 causes)

More types of Encephalitis

Encephalitis: Multiple Symptom Checker

Listed below are some combinations of symptoms associated with Encephalitis, as listed in our database. Visit the Multiple Symptoms Checker, to add and remove symptoms and research your condition.

Multiple Symptom Checker - Other Symptoms

• Encephalitis: Multiple Symptom Checker

Multiple Symptom Checker Combinations

• Encephalitis and Head symptoms (66 causes)
• Encephalitis and Brain symptoms (61 causes)
• Encephalitis and Pain (54 causes)
• Encephalitis and Meningitis (53 causes)
• Encephalitis and Fever (53 causes)
• Encephalitis and Nerve symptoms (53 causes)
• Encephalitis and Sensations (53 causes)
• Encephalitis and Temperature symptoms (52 causes)
• Encephalitis and Digestive symptoms (44 causes)
• Encephalitis and Meningoencephalitis (43 causes)
• Encephalitis and Headache (43 causes)
• Encephalitis and Fatigue (40 causes)
• Encephalitis and Muscle weakness (40 causes)
• Encephalitis and Muscle symptoms (39 causes)
• Encephalitis and Eye symptoms (37 causes)
• Encephalitis and Skin symptoms (37 causes)
• Encephalitis and Respiratory symptoms (37 causes)
• Encephalitis and Swelling symptoms (33 causes)
• Encephalitis and Behavioral symptoms (32 causes)
• Encephalitis and Weakness (32 causes)

See full list of 830 Multiple Symptom Checker combinations related to Encephalitis

Causes of General Symptom Types

Research the causes of these more general types of symptom:

• Brain symptoms (727 causes)
• Head symptoms (3837 causes)

Causes of Similar Symptoms to Encephalitis

Research the causes of these symptoms that are similar to, or related to, the symptom Encephalitis:

• Meningitis (129 causes)
• Brain symptoms (727 causes)

Diagnostic Guides for Encephalitis

12 MEDICAL SYMPTOM BOOKS: FULL TEXT ONLINE! Read the full text of published book sections related to Encephalitis from the following published medical books for more detailed information about Encephalitis. Free access (no registration): read all online diagnostic book sections about Encephalitis

Copyright notice for book excerpts: Copyright © 2008 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. All rights reserved.

Misdiagnosis and Encephalitis

Undiagnosed stroke leads to misdiagnosed aphasia: BBC News UK reported on a man who had been institutionalized and treated for mental illness because he suffered from sudden...read more »

Dementia may be a drug interaction: A common scenario in aged care is for a patient to show mental decline to dementia. Whereas this can, of course, occur due...read more »

Mild traumatic brain injury often remains undiagnosed: Although the symptoms of severe brain injury are hard to miss, it is less clear for milder injuries, or even those causing a mild concussion diagnosis. The condition goes by...read more »

MTBI misdiagnosed as balance problem: When a person has symptoms such as vertigo or dizziness, a diagnosis of brain injury may go overlooked...read more »

Brain pressure condition often misdiagnosed as dementia: A condition that results from an excessive pressure of CSF within the brain is often misdiagnosed. It may be misdiagnosed as Parkinson's disease or ...read more »

Post-concussive brain injury often misdiagnosed: A study found that soldiers who had suffered a concussive injury in battle often were misdiagnosed on their return. A variety of symptoms can occur in post-concussion syndrome and these were not being...read more »

Children with migraine often misdiagnosed: A migraine often fails to be correctly diagnosed in pediatric patients. These patients are not the typical migraine...read more »

Read more about Misdiagnosis and Encephalitis

Diagnostic tests for Encephalitis:

Various tests are used in the diagnosis of Encephalitis. Some of these are listed below :

• Physical investigations
  • Temperature
  • Neck stiffness
  • Nervous system examination for focal abnormalities that may occur depending on the part of the nervous system involved by the inflammatory process
• Blood tests

See full list of 13 diagnostic tests for Encephalitis

Diagnosis Checklist: Questions your doctor may ask (and why!)

During a consultation, your doctor will use various techniques in their assessment of Encephalitis. Your doctor may ask several questions when assessing your condition. It is important to remember that your consultation is a two-way process and any extra information you can share with your doctor about your symptoms may help them with their diagnosis. Some of the questions your doctor may ask are listed below:

• What symptoms of encephalitis do you have? - encephalitis can present in many ways, depending partly on the organism responsible. Possible symptoms include fever, headache, stiff neck irritability, drowsiness, vomiting, seizures and sometimes psychiatric symptoms such as hallucinations.
• What is the age of the person? - more difficult to diagnose in children e.g. symptoms in infants include fever, pallor, vomiting, lethargy, refusing to feed, bulging fontanelle, neck stiffness.
• Have you had a recent viral infection? - e.g. post-infectious encephalitis may occur up to 14 days after infection with measles, varicella zoster (chicken pox), rubella, mumps and influenza. Other more rare causes include Rabies, polio and HIV.
• Have you had measles in the past? - Measles may also cause a sub-acute sclerosing panencephalitis (SSPE) about 6 years after the original infection with slow deterioration leading to death.
• Have you got a bacterial infection else-where? - Bacterial cause (especially Staphlococcus aureus) is usually secondary to a pus infection elsewhere e.g. abscess.

See Diagnosis Checklist for Encephalitis (10 listings)

Diagnosis Checklist: Associated symptoms your doctor may ask about (and why!)

Sometimes, other symptoms may be present and may help your doctor analyse your condition. The symptoms your doctor may ask about (in association with Encephalitis) may include:

• Symptoms of Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADE)? - e.g. usually same symptoms as acute viral encephalitis but may have more focal neurological symptoms such as limb weakness or numbness due to added focal brain stem and/or spinal cord lesions.

See Diagnosis Checklist for Encephalitis (10 listings)

Stories from Users for Encephalitis

Symptom specific forums: The following patient stories in our interactive forums and message boards relate to Encephalitis or relevant symptoms:

• Eyes (218)
  • Sudden blackout in vision??
  • Halo around the streetlights, glaucoma or something else?
  • Flashers, floaters, and more
  • Seeing spots
  • Flashes of almost lightning type light with sound
  • More user stories
• Musculoskeletal (Muscles, joints and bones) (405)
  • Joint and muscular pain after taking chantix
  • Arm pain after sneezing
  • Fibromyalgia
  • Joint swelling, stiffness, severe foot pain
  • Muscle twitches/spasms
  • More user stories
• Neurological (Nerves) (357)
  • Could this be MS?
  • Numbness and tingling all over
  • Tingling/numbness in arms/hands/legs/face/head [more symptoms]
  • Eye twitch
  • Essential tremor
  • More user stories
• Allergic/Immunologic (88)
  • Chronic hives
  • Spontaneous flushing and redness of face and body.
  • Non-stop itching, no rash
  • Swelling & itching
  • Problems with my scalp can anyone help me
  • More user stories

Videos for Encephalitis

Patient Surveys for Encephalitis

• Patient Profile Survey
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• Survey about diseases related to your Encephalitis
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Causes of Encephalitis listed in Disease Database:

Other medical conditions listed in the Disease Database as possible causes of Encephalitis as a symptom include:

• Acanthamoeba
• Actinomycosis
• Angiostrongyliasis
• Bacteroides
• Balamuthia mandrillaris
• Behcet's disease
• Campylobacter fetus
• Capnocytophaga canimorsus
• Cercopithecine herpesvirus 1
• Chandipura virus
• Cholesteatoma
• Colorado tick fever
• Eastern equine encephalitis
• Enterobacter sakazakii
• Enterovirus 70
• Escherichia coli
• Familial histiocytic reticulosis
• Haemophilus influenzae
• Herpes virus 6
• HIV-1 disease

See full list of 100 causes of Encephalitis
- (Source - Diseases Database)

Article Excerpts about Encephalitis

Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain. There are many types of encephalitis, most of which are caused by viral infection. (Source: excerpt from NINDS Encephalitis and Meningitis Information Page: NINDS)

Encephalitis is an inflammation of the brain. There are many types of encephalitis, most of which are caused by viral infection. (Source: excerpt from NINDS Encephalitis and Meningitis Information Page: NINDS)

Definitions of Encephalitis:

Inflammation of the arachnoid membrane and adjacent subarachnoid space. (On-line Medical Dictionary)
- (Source - Diseases Database)

Inflammation of the brain usually caused by a virus; symptoms include headache and neck pain and drowsiness and nausea and fever (`phrenitis' is no longer in scientific use)
- (Source - WordNet 2.1)

Inflammation of the brain due to infection, autoimmune processes, toxins, and other conditions; viral infections are a relatively frequent cause of this condition.
- (Source - CRISP)

Organs affected by Encephalitis:

The list of organs typically affected by Encephalitis may include, but is not limited to:

• Brain

Detailed list of causes of Encephalitis

The list below shows some of the causes of Encephalitis mentioned in various sources:

• Acanthamoeba - granulomatous amebic encephalitis (GAE)
• Actinomycosis
• Addington disease - encephalomyelitis
• Angiostrongyliasis
• Arbovirosis - encephalitis

See full list of 100 causes of Encephalitis

How Common are these Causes of Encephalitis?

This information refers to the general prevalence and incidence of these diseases, not to how likely they are to be the actual cause of Encephalitis. Of the 100 causes of Encephalitis that we have listed, we have the following prevalence/incidence information:

• 4 causes are "very common" diseases
• 1 causes are "common" diseases
• 2 causes are "uncommon" diseases
• 2 causes are "rare" diseases
• 23 causes are "very rare" diseases
• 70 causes have no prevalence information.

See the analysis of the prevalence of 100 causes of Encephalitis

Conditions listing symptoms: Encephalitis:

The following list of conditions have 'Encephalitis' or similar listed as a symptom in our database. This computer-generated list may be inaccurate or incomplete. Always seek prompt professional medical advice about the cause of any symptom.

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Causes of Encephalitis Based on Risk Factors

This information shows analysis of the list of causes of Encephalitis based on whether certain risk factors apply to the patient: