Brain magnetic resonance imaging, cerebrospinal fluid, and autoantibody profile in 118 patients with neuropsychiatric lupus

The objective of this study is to analyze clinical manifestations, features of imaging, and laboratory assessment of patients with neuropsychiatric SLE (NPSLE) for better diagnosis and outcome prediction. One hundred eighteen NPSLE patients admitted to the Anhui Provincial Hospital in Hefei, China, between January 2006 and December 2016 were enrolled and analyzed retrospectively. All patients fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology revised classification criteria for SLE. Patients with NPSLE fulfilled the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) nomenclature and case definitions. All NPSLE patients underwent neurological investigations including MRI of nervous system, electroencephalograms, or CSF examination as part of the diagnostic evaluation of nervous system involvement. All statistical analyses were performed. According to different types of data, different statistical methods were used to determine factors associated with abnormal MRI among NPSLE patients. Statistical significance was defined as P value