Secondary Sjögren's syndrome and disease activity of rheumatoid arthritis.

OBJECTIVE To study the relationship of the presence of secondary SS with disease activity, duration in RA. METHODS Eighty two patients with RA were submitted to Schirmer test, minor salivary gland biopsy, questionnaire on sicca symptoms, DAS-28 4v determination. RESULTS In this population, 20 (24.3%) patients fulfilled the American-European classification criteria for secondary SS. No relation could be found between the presence of secondary SS and disease activity (p = 0.31) and RA duration (p = 0.95). CONCLUSION Appearance of Secondary SS in RA patients is independent of RA duration or activity.