Yes, Sjögren's syndrome can cause various lung problems, including interstitial lung disease (ILD), airway issues like dry cough and bronchitis, and even lymphoma, affecting the lung tissue, air sacs, and airways, leading to symptoms like shortness of breath, chronic cough, and recurrent infections, with prevalence ranging from 9-20% for significant disease but higher with detailed investigation.
Patients nearly always present with respiratory symptoms, including cough and slowly progressive dyspnea, sometimes associated with pleuritic chest pain (31,32). PFTs typically reveal a restrictive pattern with reduced DLCO (33).
Nipocalimab is the first and only investigational therapy granted U.S. FDA breakthrough therapy designation for the treatment of adults living with moderate-to-severe Sjögren's disease [news release]. Johnson & Johnson. 2024 Nov 11. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Safety and Innovation Act ().
Secondary Sjogren's syndrome (sSS) is a medical condition that occurs in individuals with autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis. It predominantly affects females rather than males.
It has been reported that more than 400 drugs can exacerbate the dryness symptoms of Sjögren's syndrome, including antihypertensives, diuretics, antidepressants, antiparkinson drugs, antipsychotics, antihistamines, centrally acting analgesics, and anticholinergics [6], [13], [14], [15].
Vitamin D,also known as the “sunshine vitamin,” is crucial for individuals with Sjögren's as it regulates the immune system and reduces inflammation. Vitamin D deficiency was shown to increase the risk of autoimmune disease by 22%.
Sjogren's (SHOW-grins) syndrome is a disorder of your immune system identified by its two most common symptoms — dry eyes and a dry mouth. The condition often accompanies other immune system disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus.
Primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) is an autoimmune disease that targets exocrine glands, leading to exocrine dysfunction. Due to its propensity to infect epithelial and B cells, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is hypothesized to be related with pSS.
The mean age was 42.16 years and the sex distribution was 5/31 males (16.12%) and 26/31 (83.87%) females. Common presenting symptoms included fever, chest pain, dyspnea, and syncope.
While both lupus and Sjogren's syndrome can cause more severe systemic involvement, people with Sjogren's usually have a better prognosis than those with lupus. Generally, people with Sjogren's syndrome have a less severe disease process than those with lupus, but there are exceptions.
Start with five minutes of aerobic exercise daily (e.g. walking, biking, running, elliptical, treadmill) and increase the duration by an additional two-to-three minutes each month up to a maximum of 25 minutes daily.
Nipocalimab is the only investigational treatment to be granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for SjD (November 2024). It also received Fast Track Designation by the U.S. FDA earlier this year in April 2025.
Corticosteroids, a class of drugs that includes prednisone, are fast-acting and may be highly successful in halting severe symptoms of Sjögren's and/or a flare.
Common signs and symptoms include1-3:
Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a category of conditions that cause inflammation and scarring in the lungs. This can lead to difficulty breathing and, eventually, heart failure. Autoimmune ILD is a specific type caused by autoimmune disorders such as lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and more.
Sjögren's disease is primarily treated by: Rheumatologists, doctors who treat diseases of the joints, muscles, and bones, and who are also specialists in autoimmune diseases.
The pulmonary manifestations of primary Sjögren's syndrome include airway abnormalities, interstitial pneumonia and lymphoproliferative disorders (table 1). Interstitial pneumonia and airway abnormalities often coexist. Infections and drug-induced pneumonia should always be considered and ruled out first.
In general, pleuritis is a rare complication in primary SjS patients. In fact, a previous study reported that no pleural effusion was observed in 40 cases of primary SjS, although it was observed in 2 of 26 cases (8%) of secondary SjS 2.
Patients with Sjögren's syndrome may also have esophageal or gastrointestinal symptoms or diseases, such as dysphagia, acid regurgitation, epigastric pain, dyspepsia, and inflammatory bowel disease.
ILD Symptoms in Sjögren's
The most common symptoms from ILD include shortness of breath and cough; however, early in the disease course patients may be relatively asymptomatic.
Based on our literature research, there are several infectious agents which cause similar disease manifestations to Sjögren's syndrome, including infections of hepatitis C virus, Epstein–Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, and human T-lymphotropic virus-1 (HTLV-1), and these four agents are found to cause persistent infection ...
SARS-CoV-2 may trigger the development or progression of autoimmune diseases, as evidenced by increased autoantibodies in patients and the presentation of cardinal symptoms of SjD.
Patients with SS have an elevated risk of developing malignant neoplasms, particularly hematologic malignancies, with most being non-Hodgkin B-cell lymphoma. Other cancers, such as oral cancer, breast cancer, and thymoma, might also occur in patients with SS.
Although systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren's syndrome were previously considered two forms of the same disease because of presence of clinical coexistence of these two conditions, the view that they are two different conditions with mutual characteristics has become prominent in recent years.
The presence of Sjögren's disease appears to aggravate the symptoms of vaginal atrophy. This may be manifested by thinning of the pubic hair, loss of vaginal rugae, decreased vaginal moisture, and narrowing of the vaginal introitus.