Abstract
Aim: To determine the prevalence of cognitive disorders in systemic lupus arythematosus patients and also examine the risk factors associated to cognitive dysfunctions.
Study design: Cross-sectional/Observational Study.
Place & duration: The current study was conducted at CMH Lahore Medical College, Lahore from the period January, 2016 to December, 2016.
Methods: In this study total 110 systemic lupus erythematous patients were included. Patients were ages above than 20 years. Patient's detailed medical history including age, sex education and disease duration was examined after taking informed consent from patients and attendants. Patients had previous history of psychiatric illness and those had other brain diseases were excluded from the study. Mini mental state examination MMSE was performed to all of patients. Risk factors associated to cognitive impairment was examined.
Results: Out of total 110 SLE patients 23 ( 20.91%) patients found to have cognitive impairment. In 23 CI patients 19 ( 82.61%) patients were females while 17.39% were males. 10 ( 43.48%) patients were ages 20 to 40 years while 13 ( 56.52%) patients had ages > 40 years. 9 ( 39.13%) patients study duration was < 10 years and 14 ( 60.87%) patients had education duration was > 10 years. Mean disease duration was 9.96+/-9.74 years. We found chloroquine was a protective factor in cognitive dysfunction P-value 0.002; other risk factors were not significant.
Conclusion: We concluded that cognitive disorders rated high prevalence in systemic lupus erythematosus patients and the use of chloroquine as a protective factor contributes to increase the prevalence ratio.