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An official publication of the ACR and the ARP serving rheumatologists and rheumatology professionals

Sjögren’s Disease FocusRheum

Sjögren’s disease achieves the rheumatologic trifecta of a clinically driven diagnosis, heterogenous manifestations and no broadly approved treatments. Justification for the use of outside diagnostic testing—or worse, invasive minor salivary gland biopsy—for a skeptical patient being managed symptomatically requires a certain level of explanatory jujitsu. After more than a decade of glimpses of promising treatments that disappeared on closer inspection, we now have a handful of increasingly evidence-based treatments and recalibrated tools for measuring success. See the articles below for updates on this challenging condition.

FEATURED ARTICLE: New Discoveries in Sjögren’s Disease

Research, Case Reports & More

Research Identifies Two New Cell Types in Sjögren’s Syndrome

Two previously unidentified cellular players in the pathogenesis of primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) have been discovered: a regulatory T cell (Prdm1+eTreg) and a helper T cell (Il21+Th1). In the study, researchers also identified the transcriptional signatures of these cells and their differential dependency on the lymphotoxin/LIGHT signaling axis, which may guide future therapeutic interventions…

Location & Ethnicity Affect Manifestations of Primary Sjogren’s Syndrome

NEW YORK (Reuters Health)—Geolocation and ethnicity exert a “strong influence” on the phenotype of primary Sjogren’s syndrome, researchers report. “The influence of ethnicity on the phenotypic expression of systemic autoimmune diseases has been suggested by various studies, especially in systemic lupus erythematosus, which has been reported as being more frequent and having less favorable outcomes…

ACR, EULAR Approve New Classification Criteria for Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome

Classification criteria for primary Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) have been approved by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR), validating an international set of classification criteria for SS using standards set by both organizations. Those criteria can now be found in the 2016 ACR/EULAR Classification Criteria for Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome: A…

Dysbiosis of Gut, But Not Ocular Microbiome, Associated with Sjögren’s Syndrome

Research has explored the connection between Sjögren’s syndrome and intestinal dysbiosis associated with ocular mucosal disease. A recent study found that oral antibiotics and desiccating stress lead to extreme changes in the gut microbiota in mice. In patients with Sjögren’s syndrome, researchers found that patients with the most severe keratoconjunctivitis sicca and combined systemic and ocular disease had the lowest diversity of stool microbiota…

A Healthy Skepticism: Researchers Evaluate CNS Manifestations of Rheumatic Disease

SAN FRANCISCO—Let’s say your radiologist comes to you and says that an angiogram gives a diagnosis of CNS vasculitis on four patients, all with acute onset of headache and stroke: One is a 25-year-old woman who is three months pregnant. Another is a 50-year-old man using excessive doses of nasal decongestants. Another is a 40-year-old…

Sjögrens Syndrome: The Need to Bridge Patient Symptoms & Objective Findings

Sjögrens Syndrome: The Need to Bridge Patient Symptoms & Objective Findings

Despite a generation of advances in molecular biology, a huge gap exists between the Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) patient’s description of their symptoms and the objective findings. Current issues include: Many SS patients are misclassified as either rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), even within rheumatology clinics. Frequently, the sickest SS patients with extraglandular…