Slight differences can help distinguish between two similar pediatric brain conditions Slight differences in clinical features can help physicians distinguish between two rare but similar forms of autoimmune brain inflammation in children, a new study by UT Southwestern scientists suggests. The findings, published online in Pediatric Neurology, could provide patients and their families with a better prognosis and the potential to target treatments specific to each condition in the future. About half of all cases of encephalitis - a rare type of brain inflammation that affects about 1 of every 200,000 people in the U.S. each year - can be traced to an infection. For a portion of other cases in which the cause isn't initially clear, researchers have discovered a link with the patients' own immune systems inappropriately targeting and damaging the brain.