Analysis of clinical questionnaire of Tokyo Metropolitan Government for Sjogren's syndrome

Abstract

Sjögren's syndrome is not one of the forty-five diseases included in the incurable disease treatment research project funded by the government. However, it is approved as a designated incurable disease for government funded treatment in Tokyo. The criteria of approval are based on diagnostic criteria revised in 1999. Complications and other factors are taken into consideration in the recognition standard established independently in Tokyo. In this study we examined the recognition standard of approval and their significance by analyzing the clinical questionnaires of patients with Sjögren's syndrome in Tokyo through 2003. The major objective of the recognition standard (2003) appears to have been the approval of subjects with severe Sjögren's syndrome with such conditions as advanced glandular involvement xerosis affecting their daily lives and visceral complications. However, examinations using biopsy, salivary gland scintigraphy, and contrast sialography can only be performed at an institution with appropriate facilities. For an approval process that is impartial and accomplished with ease, we believe that combinations of simple multiple tests should be considered as auxiliary items which could be substituted for the aforementioned examinations. In addition, future investigation is necessary to examine the high cost incurred in requiring findings within six months for an approval application, performing of annual invasive tests, and the validity of the process for determining the approved or unapproved status using the present clinical questionnaire profiles.