Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare chronic multi-system autoimmune disease of unknown cause and a complex pathogenesis. The hallmark of the disease is microvascular vasculopathy which results in tissue ischemia with recurrent episodes of reperfusion. Diffusion-weighted (DW) Magnetic Resonance imaging (MRI) is an excellent tool for the detection of activity of any vascular or inflammatory lesions.

Detect brain changes in systemic sclerosis patients with asymptomatic CNS manifestations using fluid attenuation inversion recovery (FLAIR) weighted sequence and diffusion-weighted (DW) sequence MRI.

Fifteen systemic sclerosis female patients aged 27–60 years old with disease duration of 1–20 years with no CNS clinical manifestations were included. A controlled group of 14 clinically normal persons, age and sex matched. Both groups were subjected to brain MR examination at