Pure motor aphasia developed after cerebral vasculitis due to systemic lupus erythematosus

Abstract

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a complex multisystem disease that may involve the central and peripheral nervous systems. Common clinical findings include seizures, depression, psychosis, aseptic meningitis, headache, cranial and peripheral neuropathies. The incidence of stroke as a neurological involvement in patients with SLE is between 3-20%. Possible reasons for the development of stroke are suggested as hypercoagulability and thrombosis due to antiphospholipid antibodies, cerebral vasculitis, cerebral embolus due to Libman Sacks endocarditis and hypertension due to the disease itself or long term corticosteroid use. We present clinical, laboratory and radiological imaging findings that confirm cerebral vasculitis of a SLE case with the clinical presentation of acute stroke in this study.