We are a European reference centre for the diagnosis and treatment of autoimmune diseases.
What is Sjögren's Syndrome?
Sjögren's Syndrome is a a disease caused by the immune system's attack on the body's secretion glands. Cells of the immune system, known as lymphocytes, invade and devastate the outer secretion glands. This autoimmune disease chronic inflammatory disease usually affects the lacrimal and salivary glands.
The first symptoms are joint pain accompanied by a high degree of dryness of the mucous membranes.
Sjörgen's syndrome is a common disease that particularly affects women, especially after menopause, between the ages of 45 and 55. It often appears at the same time as rheumatoid arthritis or lupus.
There are two types of Sjögren's:
– primary, when it affects the exocrine system, to the tear and saliva glands and is not related to any other autoimmune or rheumatic disease.
- secondary or "associated", when the patient has other rheumatic or autoimmune diseases,such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma, thyroiditis or biliary cirrhosis.
Causes of Sjörgen's syndrome
Like other autoimmune diseases, there is no defined cause of the disease, but rather a confluence of a number of factors:
- Genetic aspects. They are usually behind most autoimmune diseases.
- Previous rheumatic disease such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis.
- Being a woman over 40 years of age.
At Biosalud Day Hospital we will carry out a causal diagnosis to ascertain the degree of involvement and aggression of the immune system. We will then establish the most appropriate personalised biological medicine treatment protocol for each patient with Sjögren's syndrome.
Symptoms of Sjögren's Syndrome
Normally, people affected by this syndrome do not have serious symptoms, and can lead a completely normal life.
Most frequent symptoms:
- Decrease in tears and saliva
- Vaginal, intestinal, bronchial and sweat secretions are reduced, causing the dryness felt by patients affected by the disease.
More severe symptoms:
- Joint pain
- Lung, liver and kidney complications
- Skin rash
- Tiredness or fatigue
- Lymphatic cancer
- Caries or oral candidiasis
- Vision problems
Treatment of Sjögren's syndrome
To the personalised treatment of biological medicine that we develop in Biosalud Day Hospital, we are going to add a innovative technology; we develop a hybrid cell by bringing the lymphocyte into contact with the secretory glands that make up the tissue that is being affected.
We will inject this cell into a groin lymph node from where it will send a message to the lymphocytes to stop attacking that tissue. In this way, the patient's immune tolerance is restored.
