Vol.19 No.4

Original Article

Sjogren’s syndrome patients presenting with hypergammaglobulinemia are relatively unresponsive to cevimeline treatment

Authors

Koichiro Komai1 , Kazuko Shiozawa2 , Yasushi Tanaka2 , Ryosuke Yoshihara2 , Chihiro Tanaka3,2 , Hideo Sakai2 , Takashi Yamane2 , Miki Murata2 , Ken Tsumiyama1 , Akira Hashiramoto3,4 , Shunichi Shiozawa3,4

  • Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine and Biophysics, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 7-10-2 Tomogaoka, Suma-ku, Kobe 654-0142, Japan
  • Rheumatic Diseases Center, Konan Kakogawa Hospital, Kakogawa, Japan
  • Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine and Biophysics, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine and Health Sciences, 7-5 Kusunoki-cho, Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan
  • The Center for Rheumatic Diseases, Kobe University Hospital, Kobe, Japan
Received:

25 February 2009

Accepted:

9 April 2009

Published online:

19 May 2009

Full Text

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Abstract

Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) is a systemic autoimmune disease characterized by sicca symptoms, including dry eyes and dry mouth. Cevimeline is used for the treatment of dry mouth in patients with SS. Here we prospectively tested the clinical effectiveness of cevimeline at increasing saliva secretion in patients with SS, and the results were compared with the clinical parameters of the patients. Saliva secretion was increased >160% in 17 of 30 (56.7%) patients (P < 0.005). When the clinical parameters were compared between the patients who responded to cevimeline treatment and those who did not respond to the treatment, the frequency of patients presenting with hypergammaglobulinemia was significantly higher in the nonresponder group (P < 0.05). It thus appears that cevimeline is effective in SS patients with milder disease activity.

Key words

Cevimeline - Dry mouth - Hyper gammaglobulinemia - Sjogren’s syndrome