Sjögren's Syndrome Overlap With Lupus Nephritis: A Case Report and Literature Review of a Rare Entity

Abstract

Overlap syndrome is a connective tissue disorder that satisfies the diagnostic criteria for at least two well-known autoimmune diseases. In this report, we describe a rare case of lupus overlap in an elderly woman with primary Sjögren's syndrome who presented with features of nephritic-nephrotic syndrome and renal biopsy results typical of lupus nephritis combined with multiple positive autoantibodies. The kidney biopsy results were assigned the highest weightage based on the revised 2019 systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) classification criteria developed by the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) and the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). The patient's condition significantly improved after appropriate immunosuppressive therapy was initiated. With the revised ACR/EULAR-2019 criteria, we anticipate that more SLE patients with typical lupus nephritis biopsy findings will be diagnosed accurately.

Sjögren's Syndrome and Devic's Disease: A Synchronised Saga

“…It is critical for the proper diagnosis, course of treatment, and long-term care of NMO patients to acknowledge this relationship and take other autoimmune comorbidities into consideration. In order to create better treatment that can enhance patient outcomes, more research is required to comprehend the fundamental mechanisms underlying these illnesses with such rare overlap syndromes [9].…”