Ultrasonography and computer tomography of the salivary glands in the evaluation of Sjögren's syndrome. Comparison with parotid sialography.
Ultrasonography (US) and computed tomography (CT) were studied as noninvasive methods to determine salivary gland involvement and compared with parotid sialography in patients with Sjögren's syndrome (SS) and patients with only objective xerostomia and/or xerophthalmia. Patients with complaints of dry eyes and dry mouth but with no objective abnormalities served as controls. CT was not discriminative between the 2 groups. In contrast, US revealed decreased parotid gland echogenicity in most of the patients with SS, compared with only 1 patient in the group with sicca complaints only (p = 0.005). Our study suggests that US can be a useful, noninvasive method in the diagnostic investigation of patients with sicca complaints.
Humans↗