DWI is an advanced technique used in the follow-up of demyelinating disease patients, focusing on the diagnosis of a new lesion before contrast enhancement. With technical advances, diffusion-tensor imaging; new postprocessing techniques, such as tract-based spatial statistics; new ways of calculating diffusion, such as kurtosis; and new applications for DWI and its spectrum are about to arise.

Since 2005, it has been known that mother-to-child transmission of the chikungunya virus is possible. Transmission generally occurs in the perinatal period. In the present study, we describe the brain lesions seen on MR imaging of 6 cases of perinatal chikungunya infection. Patients who underwent brain MR imaging in the acute phase presented with areas of restricted diffusion in the white matter, suggesting a perivascular distribution, whereas those in the subacute/late phase showed cystic lesions, also with a perivascular distribution, with or without brain atrophy. One patient also presented with scattered hemorrhages in the frontal and parietal lobes. Important differential diagnoses include rotavirus, Parechovirus, herpes simplex infection, and hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, depending on the disease phase.ABBREVIATIONS: CHIKV 4 chikungunya virus; IgM 4 immunoglobulin M; RT-PCR 4 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction

Neuropsychiatric manifestations occur with frequency in systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) 1 . However, attribution of these manifestations to SLE are considered one of the greatest challenges among behavioural and neuroimaging studies 2 . There still seems to be a long way towards a comprehension of the neuropsychiatric (NP) syndromes in SLE, even though the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) has started to facilitate and to enhance clinical research by developing standards for terminology, definitions and some assessment methods to describe 19 NP syndromes in SLE 3 . Nevertheless, it is still quite a challenge to differentiate the NPSLE from the non-NPSLE, mainly due to the heterogeneity of assessments even after ACR recommendations, not sufficiently reported or unreported methods to classify each syndrome. American College of Rheumatology proposed nomenclature for NPSLE is mainly intended for didactic purposes, clinical research and reporting rather than clinical setting 3 . The general SLE is a recurrent, chronic, systemic, autoimmune disease which causes morbidity in between 161,000 to 322,000 adults 4 . The NPSLE is a set of neurologic syndromes of the central and peripheral nervous system and/or of psychiatric syndromes observed in ABSTRACT: This systematic review described the criteria and main evaluations methods procedures used to classify neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE) patients. Also, within the evaluations methods, this review aimed to identify the main contributions of neuropsychological measurements in neuroimaging studies. A search was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE and SCOPUS databases with the terms related to neuropsychiatric syndromes, systemic lupus erythematosus, and neuroimaging techniques. Sixty-six abstracts were found; only 20 were completely analyzed and included. Results indicated that the 1999 American College of Rheumatology (ACR) criteria is the most used to classify NPSLE samples together with laboratorial, cognitive, neurological and psychiatric assessment procedures. However, the recommended ACR assessment procedures to classify NPSLE patients are being used incompletely, especially the neuropsychological batteries. Neuropsychological instruments and neuroimaging techniques have been used mostly to characterize NPSLE samples, instead of contributing to their classifications. The most described syndromes in neuroimaging studies have been seizure/cerebrovascular disease followed by cognitive dysfunctions as well as headache disorder. REVIEW ARTICLEpatients with SLE in which other causes are excluded 3,5,6 , by clinical, laboratory, neuroimaging and neuropsychological tests 3 . These syndromes include twelve manifestations from the central nervous system, as follows, "aseptic meningitis, cerebrovascular disease, demyelinating syndrome, headache (including migraine and benign intracranial hypertension), movement disorder (chorea), myelopathy, seizure disorders, acute confusional state, anxiety disorder, cognitive dysfunction, mood disorder, psychosis" and ...

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