VALUE OF QUANTITATIVE SALIVARY-GLAND SCINTIGRAPHY IN THE EARLY-STAGE OF SJOGRENS-SYNDROME

The aim of this study was to test the impact of quantitative salivary gland scintigraphy in patients with suspected Sjogren's syndrome. Thir teen patients with suspected Sjogren's syndrome were investigated. Dur ing clinical work-up, three had severe and four had mild Sjogren's syn drome, while six were normal. Quantitative salivary gland scintigraphy was performed using a standardized method. The normal database consis ted of 172 patients without any evidence of salivary gland malfunction . Visual and quantitative comparisons of the patients' scintigrams wer e made. In the patients with severe Sjogren's syndrome, uptake was 0.1 0 +/- 0.04% and 0.09 +/- 0.03% in the parotid and submandibular glands respectively, confirming the visual diagnosis. In the patients withou t Sjogren's syndrome, concordance between the visual. and quantitative evaluations could also be shown. In contrast, among the patients with mild Sjogren's syndrome, uptake was diminished (P < 0.05), amounting to 0.21 +/- 0.05% and 0.16 +/- 0.02% in the parotid and submandibular glands respectively, while visual analysis indicated normal parenchyma tous function. In conclusion, quantitative salivary gland scintigraphy is essential for the reliable detection of parenchymatous malfunction at an early stage of Sjogren's syndrome, which may be missed by visua l analysis alone.