Abstract
The literature and case records of 46 patients with neurological manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus were reviewed. A variety of neurological signs and symptoms representing involvements at all levels of neuraxis were found to occur in the course of this disease. Most of them were due directly to the disease but the psychoses were more often caused by the steroid treatment than by the disease itself. The mechanisms by which the disease caused the signs and symptoms appeared multiple and the vascular involvement did not seem to play as an important role as has been thought. Infections of the central nervous system were not infrequent. Other than the muscular weakness improved by cholinergis, neurological manifestations rarely preceded systemic signs of SLE.
Lately much interest has been aroused and more than a few studies have been published concerning neurological involvemenfs of primarily non-neurological diseases of unknown etiology, including carcinomas of various organs, sarcoidosis, ppriarteritis nodosa, Bechcet's disease to name a few. It is hoped that they will cast a light not only on the nature and pathogenesis of the neurological signs and symptoms, but also on the etiology of the underlying diseases.
