CT evaluation of mediastinal lymph nodes in primary Sjögren syndrome

Computed tomography was used to evaluate mediastinal lymph nodes of 25 patients with primary Sjögren syndrome (pSS) and in 38 control subjects. Abnormally enlarged nodes, according to accepted CT criteria, were detected in four pSS patients and in 10 control subjects (differences not significant). The presence of enlarged mediastinal nodes did not correlate with peripheral lymphadenopathy, splenomegaly, parotid enlargement, or cryoglobulinemia in the pSS group. One pSS patient with pseudolymphoma and another with non-Hodgkin lymphoma did not have enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes. Our results suggest that the detection by CT of slightly enlarged mediastinal nodes, invisible in plain radiography, in pSS patients is of uncertain clinical significance.