Sjögren’s syndrome – a case of delayed diagnosis of malignant lymphoma with neuropsychiatric manifestations

Overview

Presented is a case of Sjögren’s syndrome (SS) in a 59-year old female suffering an affection of 20-year duration with predominant swelling of the parotitic glands, diagnosed as MALT lymphoma, later with the development of a psychiatric disorder complicated by a septic state. The diagnosis of SS was made in the course of the year 2004 on the basis of evident immunological signs, and the case was reassessed to be SS from they very beginning. There is thus accented the so-called systemic variant of SS which is marked by a tendency to affect the internal, i.e. extra-glandular, organs including a turn into malignant lymphoma as against the exocrine variant of SS which is disproportionately more frequent with a predominance of affected superficial glands with a minimum of complications in the organs.

Key words:
Sjögren’s syndrome – delayed diagnosis – neuropsychiatric disorder – parotitic glands