Early detection of nervous system dysfunctionin patients with systemic lupus erythematosus by evoked potentials – a case report

Overview

In patients with verified diagnosis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE)without any topical signsof central nervous system impairment, the visual, brainstem auditory, somatosensory, and motorevoked potentials were performed. Small hyperintensive lesions supra- and infratentorial in whitematter were detected by MRI.We found and abnormal median cortical response and absence and/orshortening of silent period after transcranial magnetic stimulationwhich we interpreted as a slightdysfunction of supraspinal and/or cortical somatosensory generator of inhibitory interneurons inthe motor cortex. Multimodal evoked potentials could become a useful electrophysiological methodto detect subclinical central nervous impairment in SLE.

Key words:
vasculitis, systemic lupus erythematosus, evoked potentials, somatosensory evokedpotentials, motor evoked potentials, lupus cephalgia