Cortical changes in women with systemic lupus erythematosus with mild cognitive impairment: a voxel-based morphometry...

Area of Science:

• Neuroimaging
• Neurology
• Rheumatology

Background:

• Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can affect the brain.
• Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a common complication in women with SLE (wSLE).
• Conventional MRI often fails to detect brain changes in wSLE patients with MCI.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate subtle grey matter (GM) morphological changes in wSLE patients with MCI using advanced neuroimaging techniques.
• To compare brain morphology between wSLE with MCI, wSLE without MCI, and healthy controls (wHC).

Main Methods:

• Voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and surface-based morphometry (SBM) were employed.
• Analyzed grey matter volume (GMV), cortical thickness (CT), fractal dimension (FD), and gyration index (GI).
• Correlated brain morphological indicators with clinical features like Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores.

Main Results:

• wSLE with MCI showed decreased FD in the left lateral orbitofrontal gyrus compared to wSLE without MCI.
• Both wSLE groups exhibited reduced GMV, thinned CT, and altered cortical complexity compared to wHC.
• MMSE scores positively correlated with GMV and FD in specific frontal regions within the wSLE group.

Conclusions:

• wSLE patients with MCI exhibit distinct cortical morphological alterations, including reduced GMV, CT, and FD.
• These neuroimaging findings suggest that cortical changes are implicated in the pathophysiology of MCI in wSLE.
• Advanced morphometry techniques can reveal subtle brain changes not evident on conventional MRI.