Frequency and predictive value of the clinical manifestations in Sjogren'ssyndrome

The purpose of this study was to examine the frequency and predictive value of glandular and extraglandular manifestations in Sjogren's syndrome (SS). The clinical profiles of 169 SS patients were compared to those of 44 nonS S controls. The specific symptoms examined were oval, ocular, vaginal, gast ric, pulmonary, skin, joint and muscle pain. Statistical analyses were perf ormed on both individual and grouped symptoms, Chi-squared analyses showed that the frequency of all symptoms was significantly higher among patients than controls. Stepwise discriminant analysis of individual symptoms sugges ts that the combined symptoms of dry mouth, sore mouth, and dry eyes correc tly classified 93% of SS and 97.7% of the controls. While grouped gastric, muscle, psychological, vaginal, skin, nasal, and thyroid symptoms correctly classified 64.3% of SS and 86.1% of the controls. This is the first study to examine the diagnostic value of multi-system manifestation in SS. The ov erall results suggest that a comprehensive questionnaire of various symptom s may assist the diagnosis of SS. The high predictive Value of the combined symptoms confirms their value in the evaluation of SS.