Concepedia

Abstract

The diverse clinical associations and wide variety of immunological phenomena and their incidence occurring in a large series of patients with Sjøgren's syndrome is presented and discussed, with reference to individual cases where relevant. Although there was an increased prevalence of organ-specific auto-antibodies, we were unable to show an association between organ-specific auto-immune diseases and Sjøgren's syndrome. The previously reported increased prevalence of mitochondrial antibody and liver disease have been confirmed, as has renal tubular dysfunction. Drug allergy and eosinophilia were commonly found. Serum IgG, IgM, and IgA levels were elevated, and serum secretory-IgA levels were markedly raised. The increased incidence of non-organ-specific auto-antibodies has been confirmed, and sera negative for rheumatoid factor by conventional tests were found to have a high prevalence of antiglobulin factors. Three patients without other evidence of systemic lupus erythematosus had raised serum native-DNA-binding capacities, and another eight patients had antibodies to heat-denatured DNA.