Clinical neuropsychiatric and neuromuscular manifestations in systemic lupus erythematosus

Thirty patients with SLE were studied retrospectively and subjected to clinical neurological examination. The accumulated neurological manifestations from the beginning of the disease until the time of examination were thus collected. Twenty-five patients (83%) had experienced neuropsychiatric manifestations while 11 patients (37%) had neuromuscular manifestations. The most frequent single symptom was migraine which had occurred in 40% of the patients. This was followed by severe protracted headache in 20%, vertigo in 20%, and psychiatric problems in 17%. Carpal tunnel syndrome and muscular weakness both occurring in 23% of the patients were the most prevalent neuromuscular manifestations, followed by myositis in 10%.