Immune function and brain abnormalities in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus without overt neuropsychiatric manifestations

Objective: This study examined the relationship between immune, cognitive and neuroimaging assessments in subjects with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) without histories of overt neuropsychiatric (NP) disorders.Methods: In total, 84 subjects with nonNPSLE and 37 healthy controls completed neuropsychological testing from the American College of Rheumatology SLE battery. Serum autoantibody and cytokine measures, volumetric magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy data were collected on a subset of subjects.Results: NonNPSLE subjects had lower scores on measures of visual/complex attention, visuomotor speed and verbal memory compared with controls. No clinically significant differences between nonNPSLE patients and controls were found on serum measures of lupus anticoagulant, anticardiolipin antibodies, beta 2-glycoproteins, or pro-inflammatory cytokines (interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, interferon alpha (IFN-alpha), and interferon gamma (IFN-gamma)). Higher scores on a global cognitive im...