Clinically Relevant Involvement Of Peripheral Nervous System Rare In Sjögren's Syndrome

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Clinically Relevant Involvement Of Peripheral Nervous System Rare In Sjögren's

Syndrome

09/19/2001

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Clinically relevant involvement of the peripheral nervous system is rare in

patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome, although subclinical abnormalities may

occur.

Investigators from multiple institutions, including the Department of

Rheumatology, Zuiderziekenhuis in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, studied 38 women

and one man with

primary Sjögren's syndrome.

Patients had a mean age of 50 years, with a range of 20 to 81 years, and had a

mean duration of disease of eight years with a range of one to 30 years.

Physical examinations (quantified sensory neurological examinations,

neurophysiological measurements and questionnaires) were used to assess

patients' peripheral

nervous systems.

Also, autonomic cardiovascular function was assessed by orthostatic challenge

test, Valsalva maneuver, forced respiration test and pupillography.

Abnormalities were found by questionnaire in 21 percent, by neurological

examination in 18 percent and by quantified sensory neurological examination in

58 percent of

patients.

Twenty-three percent of patients showed neurophysiological signs compatible with

a sensory neuropathy.

There were, however, no differences in autonomic test results, disease duration,

serological parameters or erythrocyte sedimentation rate between primary

Sjögren's

syndrome patients and those with no evidence of peripheral nervous system

involvement.

Ann Rheum Dis 2001; 60: 876-881