Background-Heart valve disease (HVD) is frequent in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and the role of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL) is controversial. Thus, our objective was to estimate the risk of HVD, including Libman-Sacks endocarditis, associated with aPL in patients with SLE. Methods and Results-Studies were selected if they investigated the association between aPL and HVD in SLE patients and if aPL-negative patients were included for comparison. Data sources were MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, hand search, contact with investigators, and reference lists of studies, without language restrictions. Data on study and patient characteristics, risk estimates, and study quality were independently extracted by 2 investigators. Pooled effect estimates were obtained by using the DerSimonian-Laird method. Of 234 identified abstracts, 23 primary studies (15 cross-sectional, 7 cohort, 1 case-control) met inclusion criteria, including 1656 SLE patients and 508 cases of HVD. Compared with SLE patients without aPL (nϭ988), the overall pooled odds ratios for HVD and Libman-Sacks endocarditis in aPL-positive patients (nϭ668) were 3.13 (95% confidence interval, 2.31 to 4.24) and 3.51 (95% confidence interval, 1.93 to 6.38), respectively. The risk of HVD depending on aPL subtypes was the highest for lupus anticoagulant at 5.

Gender-based normative values for PRVEP and FVEP were determined, with women disclosing higher responses than men for smaller stimuli in the visual pathway. The use of gender-based normative values in the analysis of clinical VEP data for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes is recommendable. Additional analysis including inter-peak intervals and binocular summation ratio might improve the diagnostic power of VEP.

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Full-field PRVEP on cross-sectional evaluations contributed to detect visual dysfunction in two-thirds of patients with OPLGG by highlighting subclinical evidence of visual loss. Abnormalities were more frequent and more severe in OPLGG not linked to NF1 than in NF1-OPLGG; however, there was a difference in surgical management between these groups. PRVEP parameters may provide reliable evidence of visual pathway involvement in OPLGG, helping to hasten treatment before optic atrophy is detected.

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