Denis Ribeiro Pereira MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Fernanda Cristina Rueda Lopes MD, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Thomas Martin Doring BSC, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Nina Ventura MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Rafael Borges, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Emerson L. Gasparetto MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Raquel Ribeiro Batista MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Paulo Valle Bahia MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

The aim of this study was to assess the microstructural integrity of the brain white matter (WM) in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) post-processed by tract based spatial statistics (TBSS).

We evaluate 58 patients with SLE (54 female, mean age 45.1 years) who fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for SLE and 37 controls age and gender matched. They underwent MRI at 1.5T scanner, with protocol including conventional sequences and DTI optimized for TBSS analysis. All the patients and controls had normal brain MRI, based on the analysis of the conventional sequences. After eddy current correction of DTI data, voxelwise statistical analysis of fractional anisotropy (FA) data was carried out with TBSS, part of FSL. TBSS projects all subjects' FA data onto a mean FA tract skeleton, before applying voxelwise cross-subject statistics. After that, the radial and axial diffusivities (RD and AD) of the damaged voxels located in the right frontal and temporal white matter were measured. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant.

We found in SLE patients extensive areas of significant FA reduction in the right frontal white matter, right superior and anterior corona radiata, genu and body of the corpus callosum, right internal capsule and uncinate fasciculus and the right temporal white matter.

These results support the extensive involvement of the normal-appearing WM in patients with SLE. Further studies correlating the DTI information with clinical and laboratorial data will help to assess the role of this advanced technique for evaluating SLE patients.

The knowledge of the imaging white matter abnormalities in patients with SLE permits insights about the physiopathology of the disease and, as a result, improvement of the treatment strategies.

Pereira, D, Lopes, F, Doring, T, Ventura, N, Borges, R, Gasparetto, E, Batista, R, Bahia, P, White Matter Damage in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus: A Diffusion Tensor Imaging Study Using Tract-based Spatial Statistics.  Radiological Society of North America 2011 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, November 26 - December 2, 2011 ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2011/11015954.html