MAGNETIC-RESONANCE-IMAGING (MRI) OF THE BRAIN IN SLE - ECLAM AND SLEDAI CORRELATIONS

Twenty-one unselected SLE patients were examined with Magnetic Resonan ce Imaging (MRI) for cerebral areas of high signal intensity (HSI). Ni ne patients (42.9%) had HSI and 6 (28.6%) had large (greater than or e qual to 6 mm) lesions suggestive of cerebral involvement. Despite the lack of correlation among these lesions and clinical or immunological features, the SLEDAI and ECLAM indices were correlated to the number o f large lesions (p < 0.002). Our findings suggest that brain MRI may b e useful in the evaluation of SLE patients, not only those with eviden t neurologic symptoms, but also asymptomatic subjects with high diseas e activity indices.