Chapter 7 Digestive Involvement in Primary Sjögren's Syndrome

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the digestive involvement in primary Sjogren's Syndrome (SS). SS is a systemic autoimmune disease that mainly affects the exocrine glands, and usually presents a persistent dryness of the mouth and eyes due to functional impairment of the salivary and lacrimal glands. The histological hallmark is a focal lymphocytic infiltration of the exocrine glands, and the spectrum of the disease extends from an organspecific autoimmune disease to a systemic process with diverse extraglandular manifestations. The therapeutic management of SS is mainly centered on the control of sicca features, using substitutive and oral muscarinic agents, while corticosteroids and immunosuppressive agents play a key role in the treatment of extraglandular features. Gastrointestinal involvement in primary SS is less and may include altered esophageal motility, gastroesophageal reflux (GER), chronic gastritis and, less frequently, malabsorption. Intestinal involvement is considered as one of the less-frequent extraglandular manifestations. Esophageal involvement in patients with primary SS and the prevalence and clinical significance of anti-parietal cell gastric antibodies (anti-PCA) in primary SS is also analyzed.