PO:03:095 Patterns of disease activity and organ damage accrual in systemic lupus erythematosus: insights from a 10-year tertiary care cohort

ACR SLE classification criteria and tested positive for anti-SSA and/or anti-SSB antibodies.All participants underwent bilateral SGUS of the parotid and submandibular glands, scored 0-3 per gland according to OMERACT definitions.7 SGUS positivity was defined as at least one gland with a score of 2 or higher.Sicca symptoms (ocular and oral dryness) were recorded using a standardized questionnaire.Continuous variables were expressed as mean standard deviation (SD) or median [interquartile range (IQR)] according to their distribution (tested by Shapiro-Wilk).Categorical variables were expressed as frequencies and percentages.Between-group comparisons were performed using the Student's t-test or Mann-Whitney U test for continuous variables and X2 or Fisher's exact test for categorical variables.Correlations were assessed using Spearman's rank test.Statistical significance was set at p<0.05.Results Among 39 anti-SSA/SSB-positive SLE patients (mean age 5012 years; 84.6% female), 16 (41.0%)showed positive SGUS findings (table 1).SGUS-positive patients were significantly younger than SGUS-negative ones (4412 vs 5411 years, p=0.013) and exclusively female (p=0.026).From SGUS-positive patients, 43.8% presented sicca symptoms.Sicca symptoms were present in 35.9% of the whole study population, xerostomia in 28.2% and xerophthalmia in 10.3%, with comparable frequencies between SGUS-positive and SGUS-negative patients (p=0.63 and p=0.70, respectively (table 2).Conclusions SGUS abnormalities were frequent among anti-SSA/SSB-positive SLE patients, even in the absence of subjective dryness, indicating subclinical salivary gland involvement.These findings suggest that SGUS may help identify a subgroup at increased risk of developing associated Sjgren's Disease.Prospective studies are needed to explore this hypothesis.