A diagnostic and etiologic studies of Sjoegren's syndrome. I. Sialographical and histopathological findings of the major and minor salivary glands.

This work was an attempt to elucidate the diagnostic evaluation of sialography+ and histopathological examination of the salivary gland in Sjögren's syndrome. The author investigated the correlation of the sialography and histopathology features of the salivary gland in 89 confirmed cases of Sjögren's syndrome and 26 suspected cases, a total of 115 subjects and the following results were obtained. 1) In determining the histopathological severity of the salivary gland lesions from sialography, the parotid sialography was more useful than the submaxillary sialography. 2) The severity of parotid sialography correlated well that of labial gland histopathology. 3) Biopsy of the labial gland was useful for histopathological diagnosis on Sjögren's syndrome but the histopathological change occurred to a greater degree in the submaxillary gland than in the labial gland. 4) From above results, in histopathological examination of severe case of Sjögren's syndrome, biopsy of the labial gland will be sufficient, but biopsy of the submaxillary gland must be employed for studying mild cases.