Clinical features of central nervous system infections and experience in differential diagnosis from neuropsychiatric lupus erythematosus in a cohort of 8491 patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Table 3 Simplified scoring system for distinguishing CNS infections from NPSLE

Item	Score
Disease duration^& ≥ 12 months	1
Fever^§	1
Intracranial pressure ≥ 300 mmH₂O^§	1
WBCs in CSF ≥ 20/μL^§	1
PMN ratio in CSF ≥ 0.5%^§	1
Protein level in CSF ≥ 0.905 g/L^§	1
Glucose level in CSF ≤ 2.2 mmol/L^§	1
Absence of hypocomplementemia	1
Total	8

CNS central nervous system, NPSLE neuropsychiatric lupus erythematosus, CSF cerebrospinal fluid, PMN polymorphonuclear leukocyte
^&Disease duration from SLE diagnosis to CNS infections or NPSLE onset
^§Evaluated within 2 weeks of CNS infection or NPSLE onset

ISSN: 1478-6362