Esophageal motor function in primary Sjögren's syndrome.

To evaluate esophageal motor function in patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome (PSS) and its relation to the presence of dysphagia, 20 outpatients, who met the four criteria for PSS proposed by Fox et al. were prospectively studied by esophageal manometry after dry or wet swallows. Dysphagia was present in 15 (75%) patients, although the presence or severity of the symptom was not related to any specific motility pattern. Moreover, this study did not show any correlation between dysphagia and degree of inflammatory infiltrate of the labial minor glands, the parotid flow rate, or the presence of autoantibodies. In conclusion, although dysphagia is a common complaint in patients with PSS, esophageal motor studies have failed to show any consistent pattern.