Antiphospholipid syndrome and cognition

Abstract

In addition to the well-defined neurologic events due to arterial and venous thrombotic vascular occlusions of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), a broad spectrum of neuropsychiatric has been related to antiphospholipid (aPL). Experimental evidence of a pathogenic role of aPL in mice with impaired neurological function disclosed inflammatory reaction as a hallmark. The process that leads to neurological dysfunction seems to be both structurally destructive and functionally impairing. The most modern resources of neuroimmaging also suggest that, in addition to the micro-infarcts that occur in strategic areas, other metabolic impairments are related to progressive dementia and aPL presence. Although there is a lot of confusion among APS and lupus' cognitive involvement, there is a body of experimental and clinical evidence that aPL causes this kind of damage.