title: Subclinical renal tubular acidosis in patients with primary and secondary Sjögren's syndrome: a possible marker of disease progression.
abstract: Abstract To clarify the prevalence of subclinical renal tubular acidosis (RTA) and its association with clinical and laboratory parameters in primary and secondary Sjögren's syndrome (SS), an acid-loading test was conducted. Subclinical RTA was found in 32% of patients with SS. The prevalence of subclinical RTA in primary and secondary SS was about the same (31.6% and 33.3%, respectively). Significant longer duration of illness, more severely decreased salivary excretion, decreased lymphocyte number, higher serum levels of IgG and IgA, and higher frequency of anti-SS-A (Ro) and SS-B (La) antibodies were found in patients with subclinical RTA. These results suggested that subclinical RTA may be a characteristic manifestation both in primary and secondary SS, along with the progression of immunologic dysfunction, when the illness seemed to be indolent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Nihon University School of Medicine , 30 Oyaguchi, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo 173-8610 , Japan.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nishinarita
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kinoshita
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kaneko
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Son
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aoki
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kitamura
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Matsukawa
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hiranuma
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Horie