Assessment of blood clot formation in patients with Primary Sjögren’s syndrome (pSS)

Abstract

Background Primary Sjogren’s syndrome (pSS) is an autoimmune rheumatic disease affecting the exocrine glands. Several pSS-associated clinical and laboratory parameters may predispose to thromboembolic risk, however clinical data is conflicting. My primary objective was to test whether whole blood clot formation is abnormal in pSS using several complementary approaches: Thromboelestrography (TEG) and Multiplate platelet mapping (MPP) for pSS patients compared to healthy and disease (lupus-SLE) controls and compare the size/composition of blood clots formed ex-vivo between pSS patients and healthy controls using a clotting chamber, which simulates the clotting process in-vivo. My secondary objectives were to determine if any clinical/laboratory/cytokine parameters were associated with abnormal clotting.