Neurological and psychiatric symptoms in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

: Sixty patients (51 women/9 men) with diagnosis of SLE were studied for finding out the frequency of nervous system involvement in SLE, the time of of appearance of neurological involvement after diagnosis establishing, the coexistence of the antiphospholipid syndrome, and the character of changes in MR, CT and CSF. Nervous system involvement was found in 40 cases (67%), with 34 cases (56%) had involvement of the CNS, 6 patients (10%) had symptoms of peripheral nervous system dysfunction, and 3 (5%) had involvement of both systems. In 4 cases polineuropathy and transverse spinal cord lesion, and in 3 cases psychiatric symptoms were the first manifestations of SLE. Changes due to involvement of cerebral vessels (TIA, stroke) were observed in 20 patients (33%), and psychiatric symptoms in 16 cases (26.6%). No difference was found in the occurrence of stroke or TIA between SLE patients with and without antiphospholipid syndrome, and no correlations were noted between the presence of neurological or psychiatric symptoms and other SLE symptoms. CT scans demonstrated corticosubcortical atrophy in 28.3% of cases, while in MRI in T2 images small hyperintense lesions were situated mainly in the white matter (33.9%). In 5 cases oligoclonal band was found in the CSF, but without any correlation with specific neurological symptoms.