الفهرس | Only 14 pages are availabe for public view |
Abstract Systemic sclerosis (SSc) or scleroderma is characterized by fibrosis and vascular obliteration in the skin, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, heart and kidneys. The onset and course of the disease is heterogeneous, Scleroderma can be classified according to the extent of skin and visceral involvement as either a diffuse or limited form. Neurological involvement in SSc is not as common as in systemic lupus erythematosus, but in recent studies it is demonstrated, however, that neurological involvement in SS is more frequent than what had been assumed. Also a high prevalence of depressive symptoms has been described in systemic sclerosis. This study was carried out to study the neurological and neuropsychiatric manifestations in patients with systemic sclerosis and its correlation to disease activity and other organ involvement. This study involved twenty patients with scleroderma. These patients were classified into 2 groups: Group A: 16 patients with scleroderma had positive neurological findings in one or more investigation. These findings were in the form of 40 % with myopathy in EMG, 35% with carpel tunnel syndrome and 20% with sensory and motor neuropathy in NCV, and 35% with epileptiform activity in EEG. Group B: 4 patients with scleroderma had no neurological findings. This study revealed that neurological manifestations were found more with older patients, longer disease duration, and with more sever disease. Also as regard laboratory investigation, patients with neurological findings had higher ESR, Total CPK. Our study also revealed that neurological manifestations had increased frequency of all depression severity. |