Functional neuronal network activity differs with cognitive dysfunction in childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus

Table 3 Demographics of study participants

		cSLE without NCD (n= 14)	cSLE with NCD (n= 7)	P-value¹
Age, years		14.7 ± 2.1	15.1 ± 1.9	NS
Female	Number, %	11 (78.6%)	6 (85.7%)	NS
Race/ethnicity	White/black/hispanic/other	6/4/2/2	1/6/0/0	NS
Highest maternal educational level	Postgraduate degree/Bachelor's degree/partial college or associate degree/High School degree/unknown	2/4/4/4/0	0/0/3/3/1	NS
WASI full scale IQ score		104.4 ± 10.5	89.0 ± 7.4	0.005
Annual family income (in "tabcaption",000)		84.4 ± 48.9	34.4 ± 17.3	0.003
Disease duration, years		2.5 ± 2.2	1.6 ± 1.6	NS
Medications	Prednisone (mg/kg/day)	11.7 ± 7.4	16.9 ± 11.8	NS
	Treatment with immunosuppressant²	5 (35.7%)	5 (71.4%)	NS
Disease activity and damage	SLEDAI score	4.1 ± 3.0	7.1 ± 6.2	NS
	SDI score	0.4 ± 0.8	0.7 ± 1.1	NS
Imaging sites	Site 1/site 2	10/4	6/1	NS
Neurocognitive dysfunction	Average z-scores
	Working memory	-0.15 ± 0.52	-1.03 ± 0.59	0.0038
	Psychomotor speed	0.23 ± 0.69	-1.22 ± 0.38	0.0001
	Attention	0.13 ± 0.57	-0.39 ± 1.08	NS
	Visuoconstructional ability	0.30 ± 0.46	-1.22 ± 0.91	< 0.0001

Values are means and SD unless indicated otherwise. ¹P-values are based on t-tests or Fisher's exact test, when appropriate. ²Number of patients (without/with) neurocognitive dysfunction (NCD) treated with: mycophenolate mofetil (4/2); azathioprine (2/1); methotrexate (1/0); mycophenolate mofetil plus cyclophosphamide (0/1); cyclophosphamide (0/1). cSLE, childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus; WASI, Wechsler abbreviated scales of intelligence; NS, not significant; SLEDAI, Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (2-k version; range 0 to 105; 0 = inactive disease); SDI: Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinics/American College of Rheumatology Damage Index (range 0 to 46; 0 = no damage).

ISSN: 1478-6362