Diagnostic reliability of magnetic resonance imaging for central nervous system syndromes in systemic lupus erythematosus: a prospective cohort study

Table 1 Characteristics of the 191 patients with SLE

	CNS Group	Non-CNS Group	p†
Characteristics	n = 57	n = 134
Female/male	53/4	123/11	1.000
Age at evaluation (yrs)	28 : [23, 43]	34 : [25, 45]	0.160
SLE duration at evaluation (yrs)	1 : [0, 5]	1 : [0, 4]	0.322
Clinical features
Malar rash/discoid rash	25 (44%)	42 (31%)	0.101
Oral or nasal ulcers	1 (2%)	13 (10%)	0.068
Arthritis	16 (28%)	60 (45%)	0.036
Serositis	7 (12%)	18 (13%)	1.000
Renal disorder	19 (33%)	37 (28%)	0.488
Vasculitis	1 (2%)	7 (5%)	0.439
Antinuclear antibody	52 (95%)	131 (98%)	0.150
Antiphospholipid antibodies‡	13 (23%)	39 (29%)	0.478
Lymphocytopenia (< 1500/mm³)	44 (80%)	91 (69%)	0.154
SLEDAI	15 : [10, 22]	9 : [5, 11]	< 0.0001
SLEDAI without CNS score	11 : [7, 16]	9 : [5, 11]	0.606
Anti-dsDNA antibody (RIA; IU/ml)	8 : [3, 37]	20 : [5, 98]	0.035
CH50 (U/ml)	33.2 : [21.2, 39.2]	29.8 : [20.4, 38.3]	0.496

*Except where indicated otherwise, values of continuous data are the median : [25% percentile, 75% percentile].
†P values were determined by Fisher's exact test or Mann-Whitney U test.
‡Antiphospholipid antibodies include lupus anticoagulant, anti-cardiolipin antibodies, and anti-β2GPI antibodies.
CNS: central nervous system; SLEDAI: systemic lupus erythematosus disease activity index; RIA: radioimmunoassay.

ISSN: 1471-2474