Frequency and significance of anticardiolipin antibodies in Chinese patients with primary Sjögren's syndrome

Materials and methods Patients were consecutively recruited among the patients with pSS seen in our rheumatic department between March 2001 and October 2007. All the included patients met the revised European Community Criteria for pSS. All patients fulfilling the clinical criteria for rheumatoid arthritis (RA), SLE, polymyositis, systemic sclerosis or other diffuse connective tissue diseases were excluded from pSS group. Any patients with sarcoidosis, graft-versus-host disease, acquired immune deficiency syndrome or preexisting lymphoma were also excluded.