Table 2.

Association of Libman-Sacks Vegetations with Microembolism, Acute Stroke/TIA and Overall NPSLE, Neurocognitive Dysfunction, and Brain Lesions and Lesion Load

Abnormality	Patients with Vegetations (n=39)	Patients without Vegetations (n=37)	P value
	Microembolism
Right or left MCA microemboli	12 (31%) 21 events/56.6 hours	5 (14%) 7 events/55 hours	adjusted HR* 3.0, p = 0.01
	NPSLE, n (%)
Acute stroke/TIA	22 (56%)	1(3%)	<0.001
Acute Overall NPSLE	26 (67%)	4(11%)	<0.001
	Neurocognitive z-scores, mean ± SD
Attention	−2.36 ± 3.00	−0.82 ± 0.91	0.02†
Memory	−1.75 ± 1.27	−0.79 ± 1.00	0.001†
Processing speed	−1.90 ± 1.92	−0.90 ± 1.15	0.04†
Executive function	−3.31 ± 3.60	−1.68 ± 2.53	0.03†
Motor function	−4.38 ± 7.40	−1.40 ± 1.54	0.005†
Global	−2.42 ± 2.32	−1.17 ± 0.98	0.01‡
	Focal Brain Lesions, median (IQR) or n (%)
Focal brain lesions	28 (72%)	12/36 (34%)§	<0.001
Focal brain lesions (n)	9 (3, 39)	1 (0, 8)	0.004†
Cerebral infarcts	14 (36%)	0/36	<0.001
Cerebral infarcts (n)	0 (0, 2)	0	<0.001†
White matter lesions	25/37 (68%)	12/36 (34%)	0.005
White matter lesions (n)	8 (1, 37)	1 (0, 8)	0.004†
	Brain Lesion Load (cm3), median (IQR)
Left hemisphere	0.05 (0, 1.23)	0 (0, 0.09)	0.016†
Right hemisphere	0.14 (0, 1.15)	0.01 (0, 0.06)	0.002†
Whole brain	0.18 (0, 2.34)	0.026 (0, 0.16)	0.008†

^*Poisson regression with repeated measures adjusting for patent foramen ovale, interatrial septal aneurysm, carotid or aortic atherosclerosis, and antiphospholipid antibodies.

^†Wilcoxon test.

^‡p=0.02 after simultaneously adjusting for age, depression index, pre-morbid intelligence, and education.

^§One of the patients without vegetations had no MRI due to claustrophobia.

TIA = transient ischemic attack, other abbreviations as in previous Table.