[Value of magnetic resonance imaging in neuro-lupus: report of 10 cases]. / Apport de l'imagerie par resonance magnetique au diagnostic du neuro-lupus: a propos de 10 cas.

This study shows the contribution of MRI to diagnosis and follow up of the cerebral lesions in neuro-lupus. Ten cases of neuro-lupus have been reported. The affected patients are 7 women and 3 men having an average age of 34 years. For 8 patients, MRI revealed lesions that were not detected using computed tomography. These lesions were high signal zones on T2, scattered with predilection to deep and sub-cortical cerebral white matter. MRI has also shown cortical and sub-cortical cerebral atrophy for 3 cases, cortical and deep infarcts for 2 cases and both atrophy and infarcts in one case. The MRI diagnosis was normal for the two remaining patients. MRI contributes to the diagnosis confirmation and localization of the cerebral lesions and to the follow-up. In spite of MRI sensitivity, the detection of these lesions remains non specific to neuro-lupus. New methods of exploration as the spectroscopy by magnetic resonance and the cerebral scintigraphy with Technetium 99m could be very helpful in diagnosis of cases for which MRI has shown limitations.