Silvagni E, Bortoluzzi A, Borrelli M, et al. - In the present study, the researchers sought to evaluate the prevalence of MRI abnormalities in newly diagnosed systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and to assess the effect of MRI changes during follow-up (FU) and the clinical course of neuropsychiatric (NP) symptoms. Newly diagnosed SLE patients with a baseline brain MRI and with available repeated MRI during FU have been retrospectively assessed. Forty-four individuals were involved, 22 with NP events attributed to SLE. A worsening of MRI was related to higher occurrence of new NP events during FU. For patients with an early diagnosis of SLE, baseline MRI is useful, allowing comparison with subsequent scans.