Diminished white matter integrity in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus.

ABSTRACT:

Purpose

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune connective tissue disease that can affect the central nervous system. Neuropsychiatric symptoms are found in 25-70% of patients. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) various studies have reported changes in white matter integrity in SLE patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPSLE patients). The purpose of this study was to investigate, if regional changes in white matter integrity can also be detected in SLE patients without neuropsychiatric symptoms (non-NPSLE patients).

Methods

Applying DTI and tract based spatial statistics (TBSS) we investigated 19 NPSLE patients, 19 non-NPSLE and 18 healthy controls. Groups were matched for age and sex. Image pre-processing was performed using FSL, following the TBSS pipelin

SUBMITTER: Schmidt-Wilcke T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4141982 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature