Meningitis as the initial manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus

Nada Al Mahmeed; Wasim S El Nekidy; Rumman Langah; Ahmad Rakad Nusair

doi:10.1016/j.idcr.2020.e00904

Meningitis as the initial manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus

IDCases. 2020 Jul 4:21:e00904. doi: 10.1016/j.idcr.2020.e00904. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Nada Al Mahmeed¹, Wasim S El Nekidy^{2

3}, Rumman Langah¹, Ahmad Rakad Nusair⁴

Affiliations

¹ Medical Subspecialties Institute- Department of Hospital Medicine, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
² Department of Pharmacy Services, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, P. O. Box 112412, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
³ Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine, Case Western University, Cleveland, OH, United States.
⁴ Medical Subspecialties Institute- Infectious diseases, Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Abstract

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an idiopathic chronic autoimmune disease that can affect multiple organs including the Central Nervous System (CNS). CNS involvement is seen in many SLE patients; however, usually it is preceded by/or in conjunction with other organ-system involvement. The spectrum of CNS involvement is wide and includes numerous neuro-psychiatric syndromes but rarely meningitis. Even when meningitis occurs it is almost never the presenting manifestation of SLE. Our case had chronic aseptic meningitis as the initial and seemingly sole manifestation of SLE, which was erroneously, treated as tuberculous (TB) meningitis.

Keywords: Aseptic meningitis; Chronic meningitis; Systemic lupus erythematosus.

Publication types

Case Reports