Xiaopei Xu1, Henry KF Mak1, MY Mok2, CS Lau2, and Edward S Hui1
1Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2Department of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
To better understand the underlying mechanisms for
various neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic
lupus erythematosus (NPSLE), we used DTI-based tractography and graph theory
approaches to investigate the change in the global configuration and nodal
characteristics of the structural brain network in NPSLE and SLE patients. Our
results showed impaired small-world structural network and diminished role of
several brain regions as hubs in NPSLE patients, indicating the disruption of
brain architecture underlying multiple neuropsychiatric manifestations present
in NPSLE. Our results demonstrated that brain network analysis is a reliable method to study systemic
disease like NPSLE.
