[Comparative evaluation of various methods of treatment of patients with Sjögren's disease and syndrome at the hospital-polyclinic stages].

The paper is concerned with the results of a follow-up and treatment of 97 patients with Sjogren's disease and syndrome. When disease was at its height they were treated in a hospital, when the activity of a process was on a decrease or absent at all--in the consultation center of an outpatient clinic. Control was exercised in an open study. Glucocorticosteroid therapy was indicated at the height of disease at early stages and much less effective at late stages or in the absence of disease activity. At early stages this type of therapy resulted in substantial improvement of lacrimation and salivation and a positive time course of clinical symptoms. Chloroquine contributed to disease stabilization but did not prevent progression in some of the patients. Administration of local substitution therapy only was not indicated because during a follow-up period the majority of these patients developed xerotic symptoms.