Central Nervous System Involvement In Primary Sjogren's Syndrome

Background: Sjogren's syndrome is an autoimmune diseasecharactertized by mononuclear infiltration and destruction of salivaryand lachrymal glands, leading to xerostomia and xerophalmia.Neurological complications of primary Sjogren's syndrome, mayaffect the periphery nervous system and to a lesser extent the centralnervous system. The frequency of CNS dysfunction in pSS remainscontroversial now. We undertook a systemic neurological analysis ofpSS patients in our hospital.Objectives: To investigate the clinical features of the Central nervoussystem involvement in pSS.Methods: The clinical data of 17 CNS-SS patients in our hospital wereretrospectively reviewed.Results: 1. There were a variety of neuropsychiatric presentations in pSS,in which 11 patients had brain involvement and 6 patients had spinalcord involvement, accounting for 64.7% and 35.3% respectively.Seven patients had peripheral nervous system involvementsimultaneously.2. Neurological involvement of 7 patients preceded othersymptoms of pSS. The mean duration of pSS at the onset of CNS-SSwas 3.8±5.3 years. 3. Abnormal MRI results had been found in 11 patients, ofwhich 4 patients had the brain white matter lesions, the mostfrequent presentation, accounting for 23.5%.4. Cerebral spinal fluid abnormality was seen in 10 CNS-SSpatients, among which protein elevation was found in 9, pressureelevation in 5 and white cell elevation in 4.