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The onset of encephalopathy may be difficult to detect on the rehabilitation floor for a variety of reasons. The rehabilitation patient’s premorbid cognition may be unknown making it difficult to detect decline or subtle changes in a patient’s mental status may be masked by their acute illness (e.g., cognitive slowing after stroke may mask a metabolic deficiency). However, there are several causes of encephalopathy which may be elucidated through laboratory analysis. This chapter is intended to assist clinicians in the diagnosis of reversible causes of encephalopathy using basic laboratory findings.

The purpose of this short chapter is to introduce the reader to basic data analysis principles that can be helpful in exploring data, determining the significance of findings, and deriving conclusions.