Primary Sjogren's syndrome - Epidemiology and prognosis

The primary Sjogren's syndrome is an autoimmun, systemic inflammatory disease with characteristic deterioration of the exocrine function of the lachrymal and salivary glands. The opinions about prevalence and incidence of the disease are conflicting. The first part of the article will focus on the known epidemiologic data. It was shown to characterize the quality of the 10 most important studies dealing with this aspect by using a self developed scoring system. The second part of this paper will discuss the scientific evidence of prognosis of primary Sjogren's syndrome with special regard to two big newer studies in a Greek (retrospective) and a Swedish (prospective) cohort. We will show that in contrast to earlier studies there was no statistical increase in all-cause mortality in the study populations.