[Study of procedure of labial salivary gland biopsy in Sjögren's syndrome].

Minor salivary gland biopsy is useful for diagnosis of Sjögren's Syndrome, because it has 87.4% of sensitivity, 87.3% of specificity and 87.4% of accuracy. However, SS cannot be diagnosed solely on focus score (FS). Moreover, FS is at most semi-quantitative. We questioned 30 registered facilities of Society of Japan Sjögren's Syndrome about the method and evaluation of minor salivary gland biopsy. As a result, it turned out that there were no standard methods in the procedure of salivary gland biopsy. The small salivary gland can be reached easily with little invasive method, however there are several problems, which include 1. necessity of a standard technique, 2. minimization of the pain and 3. establishment of proper evaluation system. It is thought that the establishment of a standard technique and evaluation method is necessary to minimize the pain and collect the sufficient amount of tissue. Here we report the analysis of the procedure of minor salivary gland biopsy performed in other institutions as well as in our hospital in order to propose a standardized procedure and evaluation system.