Primary Sjogren's syndrome complicated by bilateral pleural effusion

Sjogren's syndrome can cause many organic changes, but is rarely accompanied by pleuritis. We report a 65-year-old patient with primary Sjogren's syndrome who developed bilateral pleuritis with moderately large effusions. He was diagnosed as having Sjogren's syndrome, based on xerophthalmia, xerostomia, positive results for anti-Sjogren's syndrome (anti-SS-A/SS-B) antibod- ies, the Schirmer test and biopsy findings in the minor salivary glands. The pleural fluid was lym- phocyte rich and contained high levels of anti-SS-A/SS-B antibodies. There was no evidence of infection, malignancy or other collagen diseases which cause pleuritis. We conclude that this case adds to the eight previously published reports of primary Sjogren's syndrome complicated by pleural effusion.