Atsushi Ogasawara, Presenter: Nothing to Disclose

Shingo Kakeda MD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Keita Watanabe, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Tian Liu PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Yi Wang PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

Yukunori Korogi MD, PhD, Abstract Co-Author: Nothing to Disclose

The assessment of the patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) remains challenging, because their brain MR findings are often normal; a novel objective biomarker obtained with an imaging study is required. We reported our initial experience with quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) in SLE patients (RSNA 2013); QSM seemed useful for the detection of subtle susceptibility changes in the basal ganglia. Therefore, the aim of this study is to compare the QSM findings of normal-appearing basal ganglia among NPSLE patients, non-NP SLE patients, and controls.

The QSM was reconstructed from the data obtained with a 3D multi-echo spoiled gradient echo (GRE) sequence using the Morphology Enabled Dipole Inversion (MEDI) sequence. Forty-one SLE patients including 18 NPSLE and 23 non-NP SLE patients and the age/sex-matched 23 controls were enrolled. For SLE patients and controls, two radiologists independently measured mean QSM values in various brain structures (thalamus, putamen, caudate, globus pallidus, pons, corpus callosum, and frontal white matter) that appear normal on conventional MR images. We also investigated the correlation of QSM values in the putamen and medial globus pallidus with the disease duration of SLE and NPSLE (duration of the neuropsychiatric symptoms).

For the putamen, the NPSLE patients showed significantly higher QSM values than the non-NPSLE patients and controls (p < 0.05); there was no significant difference between the non-NP SLE patients and controls. For the globus pallidus, although the NPSLE patients showed significantly higher QSM values than the controls (p < 0.05), there was no significant difference between the NPSLE and non-NPSLE patients. In the NPSLE patients, there was a significant correlation between the QSM values of the putamen and the duration of the neuropsychiatric symptoms.

In the NPSLE patients, the putamen that appears normal on conventional MR images showed the increased susceptibility with QSM compared with the non-NPSLE patients and controls. The degree of the iron deposition in the putamen seems to reflect the duration of the neuropsychiatric symptoms.

The QSM value of the putamen may be used as an objective biomarker for NPSLE, especially in the patients whose brain MR imaging findings are normal.

Ogasawara, A, Kakeda, S, Watanabe, K, Liu, T, Wang, Y, Korogi, Y, Evaluation of Normal-appearing Basal Ganglia in SLE Patients with Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping: Comparison between Neuropsychiatric SLE, Non-neuropsychiatric SLE, and Controls.  Radiological Society of North America 2014 Scientific Assembly and Annual Meeting, - ,Chicago IL. http://archive.rsna.org/2014/14010078.html