Aseptic leptomeningitis induced by azathioprine in systemic lupus erythematosus: a rare manifestation

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune systemic disease and these patients can have neurological involvement; however, aseptic leptomeningitis is considered to be a very rare feature, observed in 1.4-2.0% of patients. Here, we described a case of a young male with SLE treated with azathioprine with progressive headache, which revealed diffuse posterior fossa leptomeningitis, relatively sparing the supratentorial compartment, that represent an adverse drug reaction - a rare manifestation of central nervous system involvement in SLE. Treatment with azathioprine was interrupted and methylprednisolone was initiated and the patient has significant improvement of his neurological state in 5 days later, demonstrating total involution of the leptomeningeal enhancement on MRI follow-up.