Overview of Rheumatologic Diseases Associated with Central Nervous System Involvement: Focusing on Sj?gren’s Syndrome, Antiphospholipid Antibody Syndrome, and Behcet’s Disease
Joong Kyong Ahn, MD, PhD
Department of Internal Medicine, Kangbuk Samsung Hospital, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
Systemic rheumatic diseases may have present with several neurologic manifestations. Central
nervous manifestations certainly occur in various rheumatic diseases including systemic lupus
erythematosus, Sj?gren’s syndrome. Neurologic manifestations in rheumatic diseases can be indistinguishable
from an inflammatory demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS) such
as multiple sclerosis and neuromyelitis optica because of strikingly similar manifestations and no
specific diagnostic tools. However, it is important to make differential diagnosis between rheumatic
diseases with neurologic involvement and inflammatory CNS demyelinating diseases because of
quite different treatment and prognosis. Thus, assessment for systemic rheumatic diseases should
be included in all patients presenting with CNS demyelinating disease, and vice versa. We discuss
here the clinical features, pathogenic mechanisms, laboratory findings and diagnosis of systemic
rheumatic diseases associated with CNS involvement, focusing on Sj?gren’s syndrome, antiphospholipid
antibody syndrome and Behcet’s disease.
Journal of Multiple Sclerosis 3(2):38-46, 2012
