Some basic knowledge of the disease that patients with dry syndrome should know

  Definition: Dryness syndrome is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease that mainly involves exocrine glands.  Clinical manifestations: In addition to dry mouth and dry eyes due to damaged function of salivary glands and lacrimal glands, there are also symptoms of multi-system damage due to the involvement of other organs outside the glands. The serum has multiple autoantibodies and hyperimmunoglobulinemia.  How to diagnose: For those who have had dry mouth and dry eyes for more than 3 months, autoantibody testing, Schirmer I (filter paper) test, salivary gland isotope examination, and lip gland biopsy are required to confirm the diagnosis. (such as atropine, scopolamine, bromantadine, belladonna, etc.).  How to treat: There is no cure for this disease. The main measures are to improve symptoms, control and delay the progression of tissue and organ damage caused by immune reactions, and secondary infections.  1. It is difficult to reduce dry mouth, you should stop smoking, drinking alcohol and avoid taking drugs that cause dry mouth, such as atropine. Keep your mouth clean and rinse your mouth regularly to reduce the possibility of dental caries and oral secondary infections. Drugs that stimulate the secretion of salivary glands that have not yet been destroyed can be taken. 2. Dry keratoconjunctivitis can be given artificial tear drops to reduce dry eye symptoms and prevent corneal damage.  3, muscle, joint pain can be used for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs.  4, hypokalemia: correction of hypokalemic episodes of paralysis can use intravenous potassium supplementation (potassium chloride), and some patients need to take it for life to prevent the reoccurrence of hypokalemia.  5, systemic damage should be treated according to the damaged organs and severity. Glucocorticoids should be given in the same doses as for other connective tissue diseases in combination with neurological, glomerulonephritis, interstitial lung lesions, liver damage, low blood cells, especially low platelets, and myositis.  Prognosis: The prognosis of this disease is good. Most of the cases with visceral damage can be controlled to achieve remission after proper treatment, but relapse can occur after stopping treatment. Among the visceral damage, those with progressive pulmonary fibrosis, central neuropathy, glomerular damage with renal insufficiency, and malignant lymphoma have a poor prognosis, while most of the rest with systemic damage can go into remission or even recover to daily life and work with proper treatment.