Abstract

There may be liver involvement in primary Sjogren’s syndrome patients. Our objectives were to correlate the presence of abnormal hepatic biochemistries with other clinical and laboratory features in patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome and to determine the prevalence of clinical liver disease.

Methods: The study looked at 95 patients who had been diagnosed with primary Sjogren’s syndrome. Tests for inflammation and autoimmunity, as well as concomitant diseases, liver biochemistry, gender, age and clinical features were gathered.

Results: A total of 42 patients (44 percent) had abnormal hepatic biochemistries and among those 42 patients, 19 (20 percent) had clinical liver disease. The frequency of autoimmune hypothyroidism, arthritis, vasculitis, Raynaud’s phenomenon, a higher sedimentation rate and a higher frequency of antinuclear and antimitochondrial antibodies was higher in patients with abnormal hepatic biochemistry than in patients with normal liver biochemistry (P, 0.05 for each). Patients with clinical liver sickness had higher recurrence of joint inflammation, vasculitis and higher recurrence of antimitochondrial antibodies than patients without clinical liver illness. Patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome frequently have liver involvement, which is linked to systemic disease features and autoimmunity and inflammation markers. A subset of patients may have liver involvement as a result of the primary Sjogren’s syndrome.

Keywords: Primary Sjogren’s syndrome; Abnormal hepatic biochemistries; Liver disease; Sedimentation; Inflammation