Case reports are intended to contribute to medical knowledge, have educational value, and typically describe common presentations of important rare conditions or important unusual presentations of common problems. They convey clear, practical lessons relevant to a general audience.

The criteria for publishing a case report include any of the following:

•  unusual
• medication side effects (contrast medium adverse reactions)
• presentations, diagnoses, and/or management of a disease
• variations of anatomical structures
• new findings on the possible etiology and pathogenesis of a disease or a side effect/adverse reaction.¹

Word Count

Total 1500 words.

Number of Authors

Maximally 4

Reference Limit

Maximum 10, not including an in-text citation of the CARE Statement publication.⁵

Figure & Table Limit

Maximum 3 (Includes images, charts, graphs and tables)

All Case Report manuscripts submitted to UCLA Radiological Sciences Proceedings should have the following structure AND follow CARE case report guidelines.

Title and Subtitle

• Add “A Case Report” or “Case Reports” to the title. This will include the title in one of the 6 searchable article type categories used by JAMA Network journals online.³
• Avoid the use of abbreviations unless they relate to the name of an entity that is best known by its acronym. In these cases, expand the abbreviation in the abstract and at the first appearance in the text.³
• Capitalize the first letter of each major word, including 2-letter verbs (“Is” or “Be”). Do not capitalize subsequent articles, prepositions of 3 or fewer letters, coordinating conjunctions, or the “to” in infinitives.³
• Avoid shrewd and amusing titles; articles with these titles are cited less than articles with conventional scientific titles.⁴
•  Abstract
• Abstracts should contain sufficient information to enable the reader to understand the clinical scenario and the relevance of the manuscript without any additional information.³ An abstract is a summary of a manuscript, so consider writing the abstract last.⁴
• Include an unstructured abstract of no more than 200 words.
• Do not repeat the title in the opening statement.
• Ensure that all concepts and data mentioned in the abstract are also included in the text.
• Provide the following:
• explanation of uniqueness of the case
• the main symptoms of the patient
• the main clinical findings
• the main diagnoses and interventions
• the main outcomes
• conclusion.⁵
• Avoid the use of abbreviations unless they appear numerous times (otherwise spell them out at first mention).
• Do not include any citations, references, URLs, figures, or tables or any information that is not present in the main text.
• Avoid the use of proprietary or manufacturers’ names.³
• Do not use the abstract as an introduction.⁴

Key words

• Submit a list of 3-10 keywords that represent the main content of the manuscript for its indexing and easy online retrieval.^3,5
• Use American spelling.³
• Avoid the use of general and plural terms and multiple concepts.⁵

Introduction

This section should provide the context for the article and the objective of the study, the hypothesis or research question, and the reasons for the hypothesis being important and worth developing. Introduction should not exceed 150 words and should demonstrate the authors’ knowledge of the subject.³

• Explain the case background: the disorder and its presentation and progression.
• In the presentation of a case report about an adverse drug interaction, give details of the drug’s common use and side effects.
• Provide a brief literature review.
• Do not include an extended literature review, results, or conclusions.
• Avoid reciting generally known information.
• Close introduction with a brief and clear statement of the study hypothesis and the subject reported in the article.^1,4
• Include the statement ‘‘This case report was prepared following the CARE Guidelines’’ and provide an in-text citation of the CARE Statement publication.⁵

 Case Presentation

This section should provide an objective, concise, and chronological description of all relevant details of the case to help the reader establish their own conclusion about the case’s validity.

• Present the patient’s primary complaint.
• Describe the patient, providing pertinent and anonymized demographic information.
• Include the following:
• the patient’s relevant medical, family, and social history
• physical examination (symptoms and signs)
• tests results, including imaging and pathology findings
• diagnostic assessment; methods, challenges, and reasoning
• description of any treatment or intervention
• actual treatment/diagnostic outcomes and the results of follow-up tests
• prognostic characteristics
• intervention adherence and tolerability (and how this was assessed)
• adverse and unanticipated events.^1,2,4-7
• Depict important dates and times in the case (table or figure).⁵

Discussion

This section should list the key features of the case, including basic mechanisms or principles. It should also evaluate the case for accuracy, validity, and uniqueness.

• Briefly summarize the most pertinent aspects of the case.
• Contextualize the case by summarizing relevant literature, including other case reports.
• Discuss the strengths and limitations of the case’s management and their possible effects on the outcome.
• Communicate the limitations of the case report, including that observations of a particular case may not be broadly applicable.
• Describe the possible implications for clinical and imaging practice, including rationale for these conclusions.
• Offer specific directions for future research and support those recommendations with references to existing literature.^1-3,5,7

Conclusion

This section should address clearly and concisely the main conclusions and their importance and relevance.

• Provide the key points to learn and understand.
• Propose an explanation of the mechanism/effect of observations in the case.
• Describe the impact of the case on a particular clinical specialty and/or across medicine.
• Briefly discuss the advantages in knowledge and skills brought about by the case.
• Give recommendations or teaching points.
• Include (when possible) the patient’s perspective on the received treatment.^1-5

List of Abbreviations

• List and spell out all abbreviations that have been used in the manuscript.
• Provide the expanded from of an abbreviation in lowercase letters (unless it is a proper noun or a formal name).
• Do not use periods with honorifics or abbreviations (exceptions: “No.” for “number” and “St.” when it is part of a person’s name).^1,3

Ethics Approval and Consent to Participate

This section is mandatory for all manuscripts, including case reports. “After a manuscript has been submitted, if the editors determine that the information could result in recognition—even if only by the patient—they should ask the author to delete identifiable details and material.” ³ Any patient who might be identified by their case description (even if only by the patient) should read the manuscript and must give written informed consent (UCLA form 10069) for the purpose of the case report publication. Authors should obtain a completed consent form but should NOT provide it to the journal at the time of submission.

• Obtain the patient’s  informed consent (or that of their parents, legal guardians, or next-of-kin) for the case report to be published, and place the consent in the patient’s chart. Obtain informed consent for any images (and procedures) that you are planning to use in the manuscript. ^1,2,5,8
• In this section of the manuscript, provide the following statement: “Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this case report and accompanying images. A copy of the written consent is available for review by the Editor-in-Chief of this journal.”
• In the case the written consent from the deceased patient’s next-of-kin could not be obtained, provide the following statement: “Written informed consent could not be obtained for publication of this case report and accompanying images despite all reasonable attempts. Every effort has been made to protect the patient’s identity and there is no reason to believe that our patient would have objected to publication.”
• In the case the manuscript does not report about animal or human data or tissue, or the patient is sufficiently anonymized, or when publication is approved by the authors’ ethics committee or privacy officer, provide the statement “Not applicable” in this section.
• Avoid using any PHI/PII, and only include information that is necessary for the scientific/educational understanding of the case.

Availability of Data and Materials

This section should include the most appropriate of the following statements:

• “All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in this published article.”
• “The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.” ^3,8

Competing Interests

In this section, declare every author’s (use the authors’ initials) financial and non-financial potential influences that may undermine the objectivity or integrity of a publication or that may constitute a conflict of interest.

• Declare all sources of funding for the research reported in a manuscript, the role of the funding body in the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the manuscript, including the following:
• receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the manuscript, either now or in the future
• holding stocks or shares in an organization that may in any way gain or lose financially from the publication of the manuscript, either now or in the future
• holding, or currently applying for, patents relating to the content of the manuscript
• receiving reimbursements, fees, funding, or salary from an organization that holds or has applied for patents relating to the content of the manuscript
• having political, personal, religious, ideological, academic, and intellectual competing interests
• If you do not have any competing interests, provide the following statement "The authors declare that they have no competing interests." ^1,3,8

Authors' Contributions

The individual contributions of authors to the manuscript should be specified in this section.

• Describe each author’s (use authors’ initials) substantive intellectual contribution to the following:
• conception and/or design of the work
• data acquisition, analysis, and interpretation
• the creation of new software used in the work
• drafting the work and/or its substantial revision *
• final approval of the version to be published
• Use authors’ initials to provide the following statement: “… agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of the work, are appropriately investigated and resolved.”
• List all other contributors who do not meet the criteria for authorship (persons who provided technical, writing,* general, administrative and other types of support) in an Acknowledgment section. ^1,3,8 

* DGSOM Faculty, staff, and trainees who author manuscripts submitted to UCLA Radiological Sciences Proceedings are responsible for all professional content that may never be ghostwritten.

 Acknowledgments **

• List all non-author collaborators and other contributors who provided technical, general, administrative and other types of support.
• Consider acknowledging (anonymously) the patient on whom the case report is based.
• Obtain permission to acknowledge from everyone mentioned in this section.
• If you do not have anyone to acknowledge, write "Not applicable" in this section. ^1,3,8

** Because this section is a continuation of the text, use abbreviations introduced in the text without expansion.

Summary Box

Provide two to three bullet points of key information (brief, single sentences).

References for Submission Guidelines

1. Rison RA. A guide to writing case reports for the Journal of Medical Case Reports and BioMed Central Research Notes. J Med Case Rep. 2013;7:239. Published 2013 Nov 27. doi: 10.1186/1752-1947-7-239
2. Guidelines to writing a clinical case report. Heart Views. 2017 Jul-Sep; 18(3):104–105. doi: 10.4103/1995-705X.217857
3. AMA Manual of Style Committee, AMA Manual of Style: A Guide for Authors and Editors, 11th ed. (New York, 2020; online edn, AMA Manual of Style, 3 Feb. 2020), https://doi.org/10.1093/jama/9780190246556.001.0001, accessed 5 June 2024.
4. Packer CD, Berger GN, Mookherjee S. Writing Case Reports: A Practical Guide from Conception through Publication. Springer; 2017. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41899-5
5. Riley DS, Barber MS, Kienle GS, et al. CARE guidelines for case reports: explanation and elaboration document. J Clin Epidemiol. 2017;89:218-235. doi: 10.1016/j.jclinepi.2017.04.026
6. Author Information Pack. Radiol Case Reports. Accessed September 6, 2020. https://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/736967?generatepdf=true
7. Bannas P. Instructions for Radiological Case Reports. Anleitung zum Schreiben eines radiologischen Fallberichts. Rofo. 2017;189(4):333-338. doi: 10.1055/s-0043-101525
8. BioMed Central. Editorial Policies. Accessed September 4, 2020. https://www.biomedcentral.com/getpublished/editorial-policies