Author/Editor		Plešivčnik-Novljan, Martina
Title		Incidenca primarnega Sjoegrenovega sindroma v Sloveniji
Type		monografija
Place		Ljubljana
Publisher		Univerza v Ljubljani, Medicinska fakulteta
Publication year		2004
Volume		str. 44
Language		slo
Abstract		The aim of our study was to determine the annual incidence of primary Sjogrern's syndrome (pSS) in Slovenia. We prospectively examined all patients admitted to our Department of Rheumatology or referred to our outpatient clinic from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2002 due to sicca symptoms or suspected to suffer from SS on the evaluation by our rheumatologists during this period. Our department is the only rheumatologic referral centre for the Ljubljana region with a population of 599.895 Caucasians. To increase recruitment, all ophthalmologists in the Ljubljana region were informed of this study and asked to direct patients with sicca symptoms to our outpatient clinic. All patients were evaluated by the validated European criteria for SS. Six questions to assess both ocular and oral involvement were given to each patient. Information on comorbidities, related treatment and tobacco smoking was collected at the same time. Besides the questionnaire, all patients were subjected to a Schirmer-I test, rose bengal score determination, unstimulated salivary flow test, as well as serological tests. If necessary, salivary scintigraphy and histopathological investigation of the minor salivary glands were carried out until 3 of the 6 European classification criteria for SS were shown to be negative or until SS was diagnosed. The exact 95% confidence interval (CI) based on binomial distribution was created for the incidence estimate. We examined 248 patients. 71 of them (28,6%, 65 women and 6 men) were diagnosed as having pSS. Their mean age was 51,3 ± 14,4 years (range 19 to 78 years). The average annual incidence rate for pSS in our study population was calculated as 3,9 cases per 100.000 inhabitants (95% CI 1,1-10,2).
Descriptors		SJOGREN'S SYNDROME INCIDENCE PROSPECTIVE STUDIES SLOVENIA