Relationship between sialographic findings of parotid glands and histopathologic finding of labial glands in Sjögren's syndrome. Relation to clinical and immunologic findings.

We investigated a relationship between sialographic findings of parotid glands and histopathologic changes of labial glands, in relation to Sjögren's syndrome. We examined 107 patients, suspected to have Sjögren's syndrome because of dry mouth and dry eyes, in whom no other autoimmune diseases were diagnosed. Parotid sialography identified 37 patients with punctate, globular, cavitary, or destructive sialectasia (S-positive group). These sialographic findings were not seen in the other 70 patients (S-negative group). Among these patients, 54 demonstrated periductal lymphocytic infiltration in the labial glands (H-positive group), whereas the other 53 patients did not demonstrate this histologic finding (H-negative group). Significant differences in stimulated parotid salivary flow rate and incidence of keratoconjunctivitis sicca were observed between patients in the S-positive and the S-negative groups. Differences in the salivary flow rate and the incidence of keratoconjunctivitis sicca were also seen between patients in the H-positive and the H-negative groups, although the differences were not statistically significant. The rate of incidence of serum rheumatoid factor, anti-SS-A, and anti-SS-B antibodies were significantly higher in the S-positive and the H-positive groups than in their negative counterparts.