The aim of this study was to evaluate the syndrome specificity and prevalence of serum NMO-IgG/anti-AQP4 antibodies in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). Sera of 76 patients with SLE and neurological symptoms, 50 of whom met the ACR case definitions of NPSLE, were tested for AQP4-Ab in an indirect immunofluorescence assay employing HEK293 cells transfected with recombinant human AQP4.
NMO-IgG/AQP4-Ab in NPSLE were present only in a patient with transverse myelitis and were not detectable in NPSLE patients with other neurological manifestations