Sjögren’s Syndrome and the Salivary Glands

George A. W. Bruyn, MD, PhDConsultant Rheumatologist and Department DirectorRheumatology Clinics, LelystadAfter attending medical school in Brussels, Dr. Bruyn did his residency at University Hospital Leiden and rheumatology fellowship at University Hospital Utrecht. He was a consultant rheumatologist at the Medisch Centrum Leeuwarden in the Netherlands as well as at the Antoniusziekenhuis from 1989 to 2009. From 2009 to 2019, he was a rheumatologist and the chair of the rheumatology department at MC Groep Hospitals in Lelystad, the Netherlands. In 2019, he took on the role of director of the Rheumatology Clinics Lelystad . Between 2014 and 2020, he acted as  the co-chair  of the OMERACT Working Group on Ultrasonography and mentored the subgroup on Sjögren’s syndrome. In 1991, he co-founded the Dutch Working Group on Ultrasonography and is a founding member of the Musculoskeletal Ultrasonography Study Group of the American College of Rheumatologyin 1999. In addition, Dr Bruyn serves as a medical expert at the Dutch Court of Appeal in labour law issues.

• Introduction.- Epidemiology of Sjögren’s syndrome.- The variable clinical presentation of Sjögren’s syndrome.- Diagnostic and classification criteria of Sjögren’s syndrome.- On the complex pathogenesis of Sjögren’s syndrome: epigenetics and epithelial cells.- On the complex pathogenesis of Sjögren’s syndrome: environmental factors and cells of the innate and adaptive immune system.- Juvenile Sjögren’s syndrome.- Anatomy and histology of the salivary glands.- Sonoanatomy of the major salivary glands.- Imaging of Sjögren’s syndrome, with special reference to ultrasound.- Towards a scientific validation of ultrasound for Sjögren’s syndrome.- Ultrasonographic scoring systems – a systematic review.- Biopsy of the minor salivary glands in Sjögren’s syndrome.- Biopsy of the major salivary glands in Sjögren’s syndrome,  with special reference to B cell proliferation.​