| Item Description | Location (or reason for not reporting) | |
| Sections | ||
| 1. Title | The area of focus and “case report” should appear in the title. | |
| 2. Keywords | The key elements of this case in 2–5 words. | |
| 3. Abstract | 3a – Introduction: What does this case add? 3b – Case presentation:
3c – Conclusion: What are the main “take-away” lessons from this case? |
|
| 4. Introduction | Brief background summary of the case referencing the relevant medical literature. | |
| 5a. Patient information | 5a – Demographic information of the patient (age, gender, ethnicity, occupation). 5b – Main symptoms of the patient (chief complaint). 5c – Medical, family, and psychosocial history—including lifestyle and genetic information whenever possible, details about relevant comorbidities, and past interv… |
|
| 6. Clinical findings | Describe the relevant physical examination (PE) findings. | |
| 7. Timeline | Depict important date and times in this case (table or figure). | |
| 8. Diagnostic assessment | 8a – Diagnostic methods (e.g., physical examination, laboratory testing, imaging, questionnaires) 8b – Diagnostic challenges (e.g., financial, language, or cultural) 8c – Diagnostic reasoning including other diagnoses considered 8d – Prognostic characteristics (e.g., staging) where applicable. |
|
| 9. Therapeutic Intervention | 9a – Types of intervention (e.g., pharmacologic, surgical, preventive, self-care) 9b – Administration (e.g., dosage, strength, duration) 9c – Changes in intervention (with rationale). |
|
| 10. Follow up and outcomes | 10a – Clinician and patient-assessed outcomes 10b – Important follow-up test results (positive and negative) 10c – Intervention adherence and tolerability (and how this was assessed) 10d – Adverse and unanticipated events. |
|
| 11. Discussion | Discussion (including conclusion): 11a – Strengths and limitations of the management of this case 11b – Relevant medical literature 11c – Rationale for conclusions (including assessment of cause and effect) 11d – Main “take-away” lessons of this case report. |
|
| 12. Patient perspective | When appropriate patients should share their perspectives on the treatments they received. | |
| 13. Informed consent | Did the patient give informed consent? Please provide if requested. |
If you have not used a reporting guideline before, read about how and why to use them and check whether CARE is the most applicable reporting guideline for your work.
Reporting guidelines are most useful when used early in research. When writing a manuscript or application, consider using the Full Guidance where you’ll see explanations and examples for each item.
After writing, demonstrate adherence by completing this checklist:
1 How to specify where content is
Tell the reader where they can find information. E.g.,
- Results; paragraph 2
- Methods, Participants; paragraphs 1 & 2.
- Table 3
- Supplement B, para. 4
If you have chosen not to describe an item, explain why. You can do this in the checklist, or as a note below it.
You can describe items in the article body, or in tables, figures, or supplementary materials, and should prioritize items you feel are most important to your intended audience. The order of items in your manuscript does not need to match the order of items in this checklist. You can decide how best to structure your work.
2 How to cite
Describe how you used CARE at the end of your Methods section, referencing the resources you used e.g.,
‘We used the CARE reporting guideline(1) to draft this manuscript, and the CARE reporting checklist(2) when editing, included in supplement A’
If you use a reporting checklist, remember to include it as a supplement when publishing so that readers can easily find information and see how you have interpreted the guidance.
