SYSTEMIC SIGNS OF PRIMARY SJOGRENS-SYNDRO ME - 48 CASES

Forty-eight patients with primary Sjogren syndrome are documented toge ther with the results of their baseline investigations. The majority o f patients were female (44 out of 48) and mean age was 63,2 years. Com mon clinical features included 20 parenchymal lung disease, among whic h 4 had interstitial pulmonary fibrosis and 2 lymphocytic interstitial pneumonitis, 12 neurologic manifestations, 16 Raynaud's phenomenon, 1 2 arthritis, and 3 gastrointestinal involvement. Haematological featur es occurred in 15 patients and another autoimmune disease was encounte red in 13 cases. These extraglandular manifestations were the dominati ng reasons for hospital referral in 43.5% of cases, the sicca syndrome were most often only mentioned by the patients after special question ing which explain considerable delay before the diagnosis.