Aims: Nervous system involvement occurs in about half of patients with systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE). Seizures and psychiatric disorders are the most common manifestations; spinal cord lesions are uncommon. We had eight such patients who presented with urinary dysfunction.
Methods: The patients consisted of two men and six women, mean age 42 years, range 28-72 years. All patients were suffering from SLE for 2-25 years under immunosuppressant therapy. Their neurological manifestations were subacute encephalomyelopathy in three, subacute myelopathy in one, and chronic myelopathy in four. Urinary dysfunction included voiding difficulty in six (two of them had urinary retention initially) and urinary incontinence in four. Standard urodynamic studies were performed in the patients 2-3 weeks after admission.
Results: All patients had urodynamic abnormalities, including decreased urinary flow in five, increased post-void residual urine in three (mean 97 ml), increased maximum urethral closure pressure in two, detrusor hyperreflexia (DH) in five, impaired detrusor contractility in five, detrusor-sphincter dyssynergia in four, and neurogenic motor unit potentials of the external sphincter in two of four patients studied. DH was more common in patients with brisk deep tendon reflex (80%) than in those without (33%). Repeated studies showed that one had loss of bladder sensation, one developed a low compliance bladder, and one had decreased bladder capacity from 470 to 40 ml with marked DH during 2 months to 8 years follow-up period.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that urinary dysfunction can be a feature in SLE patients is most commonly due to, and, in some patients there myelopathy, may be involvement of the spinal cord in a small group of the patients.
Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.