Caraba Alexandru, Roman Deiana, Crișan Viorica, Iurciuc Stela, Iurciuc Mircea
Second Department of Internal Medicine, "Victor Babes" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 300041 Timisoara, Romania.
Railway Clinical Hospital, 300041 Timisoara, Romania.
Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Dec 26;26(1):101. doi: 10.3390/ijms26010101.
Sjögren's syndrome (SS) is a slowly progressive, chronic autoimmune inflammatory condition characterized by the affliction of the exocrine glands, with issues that derive from it markedly decreasing the quality of life of these patients. Salivary gland involvement can be identified through imaging methods. Among them, salivary gland ultrasonography (SGUS) is used as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in pSS. The aim of the present study was to assess the salivary flow rate and correlations between it and SGUS findings and markers of pSS activity. A total of 112 patients with pSS and 56 healthy subjects were included in this study. All patients underwent investigations including the measurement of serum autoantibodies, salivary flow rate determination, and ultrasonographic evaluation. SGUS modifications had a strong inverse correlation with salivary flow (r = -68.002, < 0.0001) and a positive, strong correlation with IL-6 and Beta-2-microglobulin (r = -0.78 and r = -0.84, respectively, < 0.001 in both cases). The SGUS findings were also strongly and positively correlated with the ESSDAI (r = -0.88, < 0.0001) and Focus scores (r = -0.82, < 0.0001). SGUS represents a non-invasive means of assessing the state of the salivary glands and, implicitly, the salivary flow of patients, offering valuable insights into disease progression and steps that can be taken in order to improve patients' quality of life.
干燥综合征（SS）是一种缓慢进展的慢性自身免疫性炎症性疾病，其特征是外分泌腺受累，由此产生的问题显著降低了这些患者的生活质量。唾液腺受累可通过影像学方法识别。其中，唾液腺超声检查（SGUS）被用作原发性干燥综合征（pSS）的诊断和预后工具。本研究的目的是评估唾液流速及其与SGUS检查结果和pSS活动标志物之间的相关性。本研究共纳入了112例pSS患者和56名健康受试者。所有患者均接受了包括血清自身抗体检测、唾液流速测定和超声评估在内的检查。SGUS改变与唾液流速呈强烈负相关（r = -68.002，< 0.0001），与白细胞介素-6和β2-微球蛋白呈正相关且相关性较强（分别为r = -0.78和r = -0.84，两种情况均< 0.001）。SGUS检查结果与欧洲抗风湿病联盟疾病活动指数（ESSDAI）（r = -0.88，< 0.0001）和聚焦评分（r = -0.82，< 0.0001）也呈强烈正相关。SGUS是一种评估唾液腺状态以及隐含地评估患者唾液流速的非侵入性方法，为疾病进展以及为改善患者生活质量可采取的措施提供了有价值的见解。
