Primary Sjoögren's syndrome in men: clinical and immunological characteristics

Abstract

Although primary SS is typically a disease of middle-aged women, clinicians should note that it may be diagnosed in male patients. Except for a lower prevalence of articular involvement, we could no find any notable differences in clinical and immunological characteristics between male and female patients with primary SS.

Ocular Complications of Primary Sjögren Syndrome in Men

“…Many studies have reported anti-SSA to be lower in men with primary SS, however a majority of studies have not found a consistent difference in serological status between men and women. [7][8][9][10][11][27][28][29][30] Also, we compared the proportion of seropositivity for either anti-SSA, anti-SSB, and/or ANA by gender, which has not been done before. Interestingly, men were four times more likely to be negative for all three tests compared to women.…”

“…Several studies have reported men to have a lower prevalence of positive serologic tests (such as anti-SSA and anti-SSB); however, there is no clear consensus regarding the frequency of extraglandular manifestations by gender. [7][8][9][10][11] Despite the higher incidence rate of SS in women, the mortality rate has been noted to be almost three times higher in men compared to women. 12 This disparity in the severity of clinical manifestations may be due to gender differences in the pathophysiology of the disease.…”

Primary Sjögren's syndrome in men

“…Six studies were performed on men with previous pSS criteria over the past 20 years with very different results (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Except for a lower prevalence of articular involvement, Cervera et al (8) could not find any notable differences in clinical and immunological characteristics between 19 male and 204 female patients with pSS.…”

“…Several studies have tackled this problem with results that are controversial because of the small number of patients studied or to the different classification criteria applied (8,10). We also studied the impact of gender on the time of appearance of new systemic involvement.…”

“…pSS primarily affects women, with a 9:1 female to male ratio, and can occur in patients of all ages, but typically has its onset in the fourth to sixth decades of life (8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). This large female predisposition is common to many autoimmune diseases.…”