Lung involvement in primary Sjögren’s syndrome is mainly related to the small airway disease

OBJECTIVE To evaluate lung involvement in patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome. METHODS Sixty one consecutive, non-smoking patients, 58 women and three men, were evaluated clinically, physiologically, and radiologically. A bronchial and/or transbronchial biopsy was performed on 13 of the patients. Physiological data were compared with that of a control group of 53 healthy non-smoking subjects matched for age and sex. RESULTS In 41% of the patients the main symptom was dry cough. Physiological studies revealed that the patients presented significantly lower expiratory flow values (% pred) when compared with those of the control group: the forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV 1 ) (mean (SD)) was 96% (16) v 111% (13) (p 50 ) was 72% (24) v 103% (17) (p 25 ) was 49% (25) v 98 % (20) (p 2 ) correlated significantly with MEF 50 ( r =0.35, p 25 ( r =0.33, p CONCLUSION The airway epithelia seem to be the main target of the inflammatory lesion of the lung in patients with primary Sjogren’s syndrome. It seems to be common, subclinically leading to obstructive small airway physiological abnormalities.