Dysphagia in patients with three different etiologies of salivary gland dysfunction

Dysphagia is a common complaint from patients with salivary gland dysfunction (SGD). The purpose of this study was to assess and compare dysphagia in three patient groups with SGD: primary Sjögren's syndrome (SS-1); secondary Sjögren's syndrome with systemic lupus erythematosus (SS-2-SLE) and a group of patients who had post-irradiation therapy (PIT) (for head and neck cancer xerostomia) and a matched control group. Subjects diagnosed with SS-1 (n = 7); SS-2-SLE (n = 7) and PIT (n = 7) were selected for the study. An age-sex-matched group of control subjects (n = 7) was selected for comparison. Dysphagia assessments, including videofluoroscopy, were performed. Subjective evaluations were recorded on a calibrated 10-cm visual analog scale. The results indicated a significant difference in the DS as compared to the WBS for all SGD groups and for both DS and WBS in each SGD group as compared to controls. Videofluoroscopy also yielded significantly prolonged pharyngeal transit times (PTT) in all SGD groups as compared to controls. Subjective results indicated a greater degree of dysphagia symptoms in all of the SGD groups (p < 0.001). Conclusions from this study indicate clinically significant dysphagia in patients with SS-1, SS-2-SLE and PIT as compared to a control population.