Lupus & antiphospholipid syndrome
Resting state functional connectivity in SLE patients and association with cognitive impairment and blood–brain barrier permeability
Authors' conclusion
SLE patients with cognitive impairment had abnormalities in brain rsFC which accounted for most of the association between extensive BBB leakage and cognitive impairment.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with SLE assessed by neuropsychological testing, functional MRI and dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, and healthy controls77 tested
- Exposure
- SLE-CI vs SLE-NC vs healthy controls; SLE with vs without extensive blood-brain barrier (BBB) leakage
- Outcome
- Resting-state FC (rsFC) in 131 regions across five canonical brain networks, in association with cognitive impairment and BBB dysfunction
Methodological detailsresting-state functional MRI, dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI, causal mediation analysis
- Resting-state functional MRI
- Dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI
- Causal mediation analysis
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Brain-wide rsFC
- Significant differences in intra-network and inter-network functional connectivity (FC) in SLE-CI vs SLE-NC
- Affected connections showed reduced negative Resting-state FC (rsFC) in SLE-CI vs SLE-NC and healthy controls
- SLE-CI vs SLE-NC: P = 0.030
- SLE-CI vs Healthy controls: P = 0.006
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Brain-wide connections and extensive BBB leakage
- Specific brain regions had a lower total number of brain-wide connections with extensive BBB leakage
- P = 0.011
Mediation of BBB leakage–cognitive impairment association by FC alterations
- Proportion of association mediated by FC alterations
- 64%
- Causal mediation analysis
Original publication
Resting state functional connectivity in SLE patients and association with cognitive impairment and blood–brain barrier permeability. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 14 June 2022. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →