Abstract
Background: To evaluate the prevalence of Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) in patients with dry eye syndrome. Methods: In this prospective study, patients with dry eye syndrome were evaluated by a single rheumatologist and patients were considered for an underlying rheumatic condition. Results: Fourty five patients with dry eye syndrome were evaluated. 37 patient was female (82.2%) and 8 was male (17.8%).The mean age was 45,5 ± 10.4. years (18-64). A total of 21 (46.7%) patients had an associated rheumatic disease; the most common being primary SS (14 patients, 66.6%). Other diseases that were associated included scleroderma (5 patients, 23.8%) and undifferentiated connective tissue disease (2 patients, 9.52%). Conclusions: Our results demonstrate a high frequency of associated SS in a group of patients with dry eye syndrome. We suggest that laboratory evaluation with patient’s clinical presentation as well as a detailed review of systems should be performed in all dry eye patients. Primary SS should be considered as a systemic autoimmune disease underlying beyond sicca involvement.
Highlights
Dry Eye Syndrome (DES), known as keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) or keratitis sicca, is a multifactorial disease of the tears and the ocular surface that results in discomfort, visual disturbance, and tear film instability with potential damage to the ocular surface
Secondary s syndrome (SS) is defined as DES that is associated with a diagnosable connective tissue diseases (CTD), which is most commonly rheumatoid arthritis (RA) but could be systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or systemic sclerosis
Our study demonstrated a significant association of dry eye syndrome with systemic medical conditions, the most common was primary Sjögren’s syndrome and xerostomia was found more frequent than the other symptoms
Summary
Dry Eye Syndrome (DES), known as keratoconjunctivitis sicca (KCS) or keratitis sicca, is a multifactorial disease of the tears and the ocular surface that results in discomfort, visual disturbance, and tear film instability with potential damage to the ocular surface. Primary SS was diagnosed in patients consisting of the occurrence of aqueous deficient dry eye syndrome in combination with symptoms of dry mouth, in the presence of autoantibodies, evidence of reduced salivary secretion and with a positive minor salivary gland biopsy. These patients are mostly women and do not have a separate, identifiable CTD. To evaluate the prevalence of Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) in patients with dry eye syndrome
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