TITLE
OF CASE
|
|
TIPS:
●
Please use a clinical and straight forward
title that accurately reflects the diagnosis and main point of the case
report
●
Do not include “a case report”, “review”,
“literature review”, “rare case”, “first case” in the title
●
Do not use cryptic, humorous or play-on-word
titles
●
There should be no exclamation mark in the
title
●
Do not put the patient’s age, sex or
ethnicity in the title
|
SUMMARY
|
|
TIPS:
●
This is a summary of the entire manuscript
and is freely available online
●
It is the equivalent of an abstract
●
Use a maximum of 150 words summarising the
case presentation and outcome
●
Describe the essential information of the
case and emphasise the learning points
●
The SUMMARY is distinct from the BACKGROUND
section below - do not copy and paste
●
When submitting to ScholarOne copy this
summary on to the relevant section
|
BACKGROUND
|
|
TIPS:
●
Give the context of your manuscript
●
Is this a prevalent health problem?
●
Is there a clear message?
●
The BACKGROUND is distinct from the SUMMARY section
above. Do not copy and paste
|
CASE
PRESENTATION
|
|
TIPS:
●
Give a comprehensive account of the
presenting features, including the medical/social/family history
●
This is the patient’s story – anonymise the
manuscript as far as possible. Do not write the exact age (write “in his 20s”
instead). Ethnicities and exact occupations should be avoided unless
essential to clinical discussion. Place names and calendar dates are to be
avoided – use regions of the world and “2 months/days later”, for example,
instead.
●
Do not name your institution in the text (or
in the patient perspective section). If necessary use phrases such as
“presented to the/our Emergency Department”, “was referred to our tertiary
specialist unit”…
●
How did the patient present? Signs and symptoms…
●
What is the relevant history? Why is this
relevant?
●
Explain your findings and how they
influenced your decisions
●
Do not use abbreviations for diseases or
investigations
●
Use internationally accepted units for
measurements
●
Use only scientific names of drugs. Include
the manufacturer in brackets when describing equipment
●
Present information in ways that are easy to
follow. Use diagrammatic flowcharts and timelines where appropriate. Results
may be tabulated or presented graphically. Make clear that you have drawn
figures and that these have not been taken from other publications or
Internet sources.
|
INVESTIGATIONS
If
relevant
|
|
TIPS:
●
All investigations that create a background
(baseline) picture are relevant
●
All investigations that are crucial to management
decisions should be discussed in full – include the limitations of
investigations and problems in their interpretation
●
Choose appropriate images and videos to
illustrate your point. Remove all details that identify the patient
●
We do not publish images that include the
patient’s face. Do not upload these.
●
Images and videos should be fully annotated.
Use arrows and labels with explanations so that readers may understand easily
and may learn from these. Do not show the patient’s face in the video.
|
DIFFERENTIAL
DIAGNOSIS If relevant
|
|
TIPS:
●
Please do not list diagnoses.
We want to understand how the final diagnosis was teased out. This is often
the most important section and should be discussed in full
●
All working diagnoses need to be
substantiated
|
TREATMENT
If
relevant
|
|
TIPS:
●
Include pharmacological and
non-pharmacological treatment, e.g. surgery, physiotherapy, supportive care
●
Please carefully check details of dosage and
frequency (including loading doses and changes in dosage)
●
We do not publish manuscripts about the
efficacy of new treatments, new combinations of treatments, existing
treatments used for new indications, or the results of phase 2 trials
●
We do not publish case reports that describe
off-label use of a drug
●
We do not publish manuscripts where the
patient is currently enrolled in a clinical trial whether this relates to the
treatment you describe or otherwise
●
If your patient was previously treated as
part of a clinical trial and this is relevant to the current case
description, please, give full details of the trial with citations and
explain exactly how this relates to the current case description. Is the
trial ongoing? Are the authors of the manuscript the trial organisers? If
not, are the trial organisers aware of the submission of this manuscript?
This information should be disclosed in full in the author statements at
submission.
|
OUTCOME
AND FOLLOW-UP
|
|
TIP:
●
Always include comprehensive follow-up data;
this gives readers a clear understanding of outcome
●
Follow-up data should include the health of
the patient, return to daily activity and work, and after care arrangements
●
The follow-up period should be defined.
Please update follow up data after final revision of the manuscript so that
outcome information is up-to-date
●
Please include details of surveillance and
up-to-date guidelines of disease outcome/monitoring
●
Please state whether the patient has died,
when and whether this is related to the illness described
|
DISCUSSION Include a very brief review of similar
published cases
|
|
TIPS:
●
This is the opportunity to describe
mechanisms of pathology/injury, current guidelines, diagnostic pathways (use
original diagrams to illustrate processes), and the points of interest of the
case
●
Cite up-to-date supporting literature
●
Include a summary of similar published
cases. Where appropriate these may be tabulated
●
A summary of relevant clinical guidelines is
important
●
Please do not copy and paste from existing
publications, texts or web resources (including material you have published
yourself)
●
Ensure that any content used from reference
sources are clearly cited
●
Use software to check for overlapping text
before you submit
●
Please do not reproduce tables or figures
from other publications without obtaining permission for reproduction before submission
●
Make clear (add a note in the legend)
whether you have drawn your own figures
●
We welcome all figures that illustrate
clinical-pathological correlations – these add substantially to the learning
value of the article
|
Are
your conclusions supported by the clinical information described? Do you need
to temper your conclusions? Have you described a possible causal association
with adequate caution?
LEARNING POINTS/TAKE HOME MESSAGES 3-5
bullet points
|
THIS IS A REQUIRED FIELD
TIPS:
●
This is the most crucial part of the case –
what do you want readers to remember when seeing their own patients?
●
Are your conclusions supported by the clinical information
described?
●
Are your learning points derived from the particular case described?
|
REFERENCES
|
|
TIPS:
●
Include only relevant references, including
guidelines, in Vancouver style
●
Make sure your references actually support
the points you make, are up-to-date and are correctly formatted
|
FIGURE/VIDEO
CAPTIONS
|
|
TIPS:
●
We do not have a limit on illustrations, but
choose only what illustrates your case most effectively and ensure that the
patient cannot not be recognised by cropping the image as closely as
possible. We do not accept facial images
●
Check that all patient identifying
information has been removed from images
●
We encourage colour images and videos.
Please add arrows, captions and annotation. These substantially enhance the
manuscript and add learning value
●
Videos should be of 3-4 minutes duration,
and include relevant labels and annotation. There should be no background
noise or music. If narrated, the audio should be clearly heard and
understood. Please do not include animated text. Animations should be used
only for the purposes of explanation and should be the authors’ work and
specific to the case
●
Please visit the Author Hub
for further information regarding formatting.
|
PATIENT’S
PERSPECTIVE
|
|
TIPS:
●
This is an important section and gives the
patient/next of kin the opportunity to comment on their experience. This
enhances the case report and is strongly encouraged
●
This section is written by the patient (or
close family) in their own words,
in the first-person. This is an
opportunity for us to understand the signs and symptoms the patient
experienced, their thoughts and concerns, their experience of the treatment
they received, recovery and adjustment to life after or with illness or
disability
●
Spelling and grammar should be corrected
where necessary (as per the rest of the
manuscript) by the authors and non-English perspectives should be translated
by the authors. Please make clear who has written the perspective and
indicate when this has been translated by the authors. Patients who prefer to
share an audio or video perspective should have this transcribed by the
authors. For the purposes of anonymity audio and video recordings are not
published
●
Please check that details that reveal the
identity of the patient are avoided. These include calendar dates, locations
and details of other family members
●
Some published articles are picked up by the
wider non-medical media and patients should be made aware of this,
especially, when they contribute their perspective and when they give consent
for publication
●
Single sentences or statements of thanks to
the clinical teams will not be published
|
INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTY RIGHTS ASSIGNMENT OR LICENCE STATEMENT
|
|
I, [INSERT YOUR NAME IN FULL], the Author has the right to grant and
does grant on behalf of all authors, an exclusive licence and/or a
non-exclusive licence for contributions from authors who are: i) UK Crown
employees; ii) where BMJ has agreed a CC-BY licence shall apply, and/or iii)
in accordance with the relevant stated licence terms for US Federal
Government Employees acting in the course of the their employment, on a
worldwide basis to the BMJ Publishing Group Ltd (“BMJ”) and its
licensees, to permit this Work (as defined in the below licence), if
accepted, to be published in BMJ Case Reports and any other BMJ products and
to exploit all rights, as set out in our licence author licence.
Date:
|
Comments
Post a Comment