title: Selective involvement of the amygdala in systemic lupus erythematosus.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Antibodies specifically affect the amygdala in a mouse model of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The aim of our study was to investigate whether there is also specific involvement of the amygdala in human SLE.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We analyzed a group of 37 patients with neuropsychiatric SLE (NP-SLE), 21 patients with SLE, and a group of 12 healthy control participants with diffusion weighted imaging (DWI). In addition, in a subset of eight patients, plasma was available to determine their anti-NMDAR antibody status. From the structural magnetic resonance imaging data, the amygdala and the hippocampus were segmented, as well as the white and gray matter, and the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) was retrieved. ADC values between controls, patients with SLE, and patients with NP-SLE were tested using analysis of variance with post-hoc Bonferroni correction. No differences were found in the gray or white matter segments. The average ADC in the amygdala of patients with NP-SLE and SLE (940 x 10(-6) mm2/s; p = 0.006 and 949 x 10(-6) mm2/s; p = 0.019, respectively) was lower than in healthy control participants (1152 x 10(-6) mm2/s). Mann-Whitney analysis revealed that the average ADC in the amygdala of patients with anti-NMDAR antibodies (n = 4; 802 x 10(-6) mm2/s) was lower (p = 0.029) than the average ADC of patients without anti-NMDAR antibodies (n = 4; 979 x 10(-6) mm2/s) and also lower (p = 0.001) than in healthy control participants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to our knowledge to observe damage in the amygdala in patients with SLE. Patients with SLE with anti-NMDAR antibodies had more severe damage in the amygdala compared to SLE patients without anti-NMDAR antibodies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. b.j.emmer@lumc.nl
authors.forename: Bart J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Emmer
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Grond
authors.forename: Gerda M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Steup-Beekman
authors.forename: Tom W J
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Huizinga
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: van Buchem
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000679:Amygdala / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology*; D000918:Antibody Specificity; D001323:Autoantibodies / Q000097:blood; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D008180:Lupus Erythematosus, Systemic / Q000276:immunology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D001323:Autoantibodies; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate