Sarcoidosis and Sjögren's syndrome: Clinical and salivary evaluation

Background: Sarcoidosis and Sjögren's syndrome are two different diseases; however, when affecting the salivary glands, both diseases exhibit similar clinical signs and symptoms, which often complicates the diagnosis. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of using salivary electrophoresis to differentiate between the two diseases. Methods: Saliva was collected from patients with sarcoidosis and patients with Sjögren's syndrome. Salivary flow rate, total protein, and electrophoretic profiles were examined. Results: Mean salivary flow rate was 0.41 ± 0.07 ml/min/gland vs. 0.43 ± 0.07 ml/min/gland; total salivary protein was 130.0 ± 29.2 mg% vs. 104.0 ± 8.8 mg% for sarcoidosis vs. Sjögren's syndrome, respectively. No differences were observed in salivary flow rate, total salivary protein, or electrophoretic profile between patients with sarcoidosis and patients with Sjögren's syndrome (P = 0.768, 0.718, and 1.000, respectively). Conclusions: Salivary protein electrophoresis does not appear to be useful to differentiate between sarcoidosis and Sjögren's syndrome.