Lupus
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Twenty-two neuropsychiatric (NPSLE) and 13 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with a normal appearing brain on plain magnetic resonance (MR) as well as 20 age-matched healthy controls underwent MR spectroscopy (MRS), perfusion-weighted (PWI) and diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI). In MRS NAA/Cr, Cho/Cr and mI/Cr ratios were calculated from the posterior cingulate cortex and left parietal white matter. In PWI, values of cerebral blood volume (CBV) were assessed from 14 regions, including gray and white matter. ⋯ Compared to SLE, NPSLE subjects revealed lower FA values within a wide range of association fibers and corpus callosum. Advanced MR techniques are capable of in vivo detection of complex microstructural brain damage in SLE and NPSLE subjects regarding neuronal loss, mild hypoperfusion and white matter disintegrity. MRS and DTI seem to show the highest usefulness in depicting early changes in normal appearing gray and white matter in SLE patients.