Juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (jSLE): Auditory pathway affection in relation to disease activity.

BACKGROUND: Juvenile Systemic lupus erythematosus (jSLE) is an autoimmune disease with the potential to affect a variety of organs in children or adolescents. jSLE is characterized by its severity and more widespread organ involvement specially central nervous system.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate auditory processing and cognitive functions in children and adolescents with SLE taking into consideration the disease severity.

METHODS: This work included 40 normal hearing pediatric patients diagnosed as SLE (23 with active disease and 17 with inactive disease) and a control group included 30 matched healthy children. The methodology included basic audiologic evaluation, mismatch negativity (MMN) in response to speech and tone stimuli and memory tests.

RESULTS: Children with jSLE showed impaired hearing thresholds. They also showed impaired MMN recording in response to speech or tone stimuli with impaired memory subtests.

CONCLUSIONS: Peripheral and central auditory systems are affected in jSLE. This affection is worse with active disease.