Neuropsychological Functioning and Its Relationship to AntiphospholipidAntibodies in Patients With Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

While it is clear that central nervous system (CNS) lesions in systemiclupus erythematosus (SLE) adversely affect cognitive functioning, it is alsoevident that patients without visible lesions (non-CNS SLE) may also exhibitsubtle cognitive impairment. The presence of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs)has been proposed as a marker of disease severity and hence should be correlatedwith neuropsychological dysfunction in this population. The current studycompared groups of non-CNS lupus patients who were positive (LA+) or negative(LA-) for aPLs on selected measures of neuropsychological functioning.In addition, we attempted to characterize the pattern of cognitive impairmentthat is associated with LA status in these patients. No coherent neuropsychologicalpattern emerged, but LA+ patients performed worse than LA- patientson measures assessing attention, concentration, and visual search, as wellas spatial learning and memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]