¹MVZ Hochsauerland, Rheumatologie, Arnsberg
²Medizinische Hochschule Hannover (MHH), Klinik für Immunologie und Rheumatologie, Hannover
³LMU-München, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychological Treatment, München
⁴Department of Neurology MHH, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover

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Introduction: Sjögren’s disease (SjD) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease. Whilst the disease usually affects the lachrymal and salivary glands, manifestations of other organ systems can also occur. An association between SjD and autoimmune thyroiditis has already been established, very few publications exist regarding the association of other autoimmune diseases and SjD.

This study analyses the prevalence of other coexisting autoimmune diseases and their association with SjD disease activity and antibody status.

Methods: A retrospective assessment of 583/625 patients from the Hannover cohort with confirmed SjD diagnosis was performed. Table 1 [Tab. 1] shows a summary of the patient characteristics. Data were collected from hospital medical records and analysed for evidence of other autoimmune diseases (Figure 1 [Fig. 1]).

Results: 346/583 (59.3%) of SjD patients had one or more additional autoimmune diseases. The most frequent coexisting autoimmune disease remained autoimmune thyroiditis, occurring in 110/583 (18.9%) patients. Although no clear epidemiological data for autoimmune thyroiditis in the general population in Germany exist, countries sharing similar demographics have been assessed with a prevalence of 1.7–8.5% [1], [2]. Other autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease 16/583 (2.7%) [3] und autoimmune hepatitis 8/583 (1,4%) [4] occurred more frequently in our SjD cohort than in the general German population. Immunodeficiencies were much more common amongst our patient cohort compared to the general German population with 8/583 (1.4%) [5]. We also examined the autoimmune neurological disease multiple sclerosis (MS) 22/583 (3.8%) which occurred more frequently in our SjD cohort than in the general German population [6]. The prevalence of all analysed autoimmune diseases in our patient cohort is summarised in Figure 1 [Fig. 1]. The other rheumatic diseases which occurred after SjD was already diagnosed are summarised in Table 2 [Tab. 2]. Coexisting autoimmune diseases were associated with higher ESSDAI Score.

Conclusion: Coexisting autoimmune diseases are common in patients with SjD and some autoimmune diseases have a higher prevalence in SjD patients compared to the general population. As SjD is associated with a broad range of symptoms which can be similar to other autoimmune diseases, it is important to also consider if a SjD patient is also suffering from a coexisting autoimmune disease. We plan to analyse the whole Hannover cohort to further investigate the association of SjD and other autoimmune diseases.

Disclosures: AM: received honoraria for lectures and travel grants from Abbvie, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis, Lilly, Galapagos, Pfizer and has participated in advisory boards for Abbvie, UCB and Rheuma Buddy.

LG: none declared

ACMV: none declared

NZ: received research grants by Novartis and financial support for conference attendance by Abbvie.

FT: none declared

SB: none declared

ThS: reports honoraria for lectures and travel grants from Alexion, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, argenx, Bayer Vital, Biogen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Celegne, Centogene, CSL Behring, Euroimmun, Grifols, Hexal AG, Janssen-Cilag, Merck Serone, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche, Sanofi, Siemens, Sobi, Teva, Viatris. His research is supported by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF: CurePML01EN2302), Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation for Immuno-Oncology (FA 19-010), Claudia von Schilling Foundation for Breast Cancer Research, Else Kröner Fresenius Foundation, Hannover Biomedical Research School (HBRS), Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, CSL Behring, Novartis, Sanofi Genzyme, VHV Foundation.

TW: received honoria for lectures by Abbvie, BMS, Chugai, Galapagos, Janssen, Lilly, Pfizer, UCB and Roche. Torsten Witte received funding from the DFG (German Research Foundation) under Germany´s Excellence Strategy – EXC 2155 – project number 390874280.

TSe: Received a research grant by Novartis Pharma GmbH and received financial support for a conference attendance by Abbvie.

DE: received presentation honoria from Abbvie, Amgen, BMS, Chugai, Cilag-Janssen, Galapagos, GSK, Medac, Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis and Roche., Diana Ernst participated in advisory boards for Abbvie, Galapagos, Amgen and Novartis. Diana Ernst received research grants by Novartis and Abbvie.

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