Table 2.
Contribution of imaging techniques to the diagnostic work-up and follow-up of pSS patients.
| Contribution To: | Advantages | Disadvantages | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diagnosing pSS | Assessing Disease Activity/Disease Progression | Diagnosing pSS -Associated Lymphoma | Staging pSS-Associated Lymphoma | |||
| Salivary Gland Biopsy | +++ | + | +++ | - | -Gold Standard of Salivary and Lacrimal Gland MALT Lymphoma Diagnosis | -Invasive -Risk of Sampling Error |
| Sialography | + | + | − | − | -Moderate to High Sensitivity and Specificity | -Invasive -Contrast Medium |
| MRI | + | + | + | + | -High Spatial Resolution -Useful in Local Staging of PSS-Associated Lymphomas of Salivary and Lacrimal Glands |
-Expensive -Moderate Differentiation Between Benign and Malignant Lesions of Salivary and Lacrimal Glands |
| Ultrasound | ++ | + | − | − | -Noninvasive -Widely Available |
-No Consensus Scoring System |
| Sialendoscopy | − | − | − | − | -Possible Therapeutic Effect of Rinsing the Ductal System | -Invasive -No Added Value in Diagnostic Work-Up |
| Scintigraphy with 99mTc-Pertechnetate | + | + | − | − | -Possibility of Whole-Body Imaging | -Low Specificity -Low Spatial Resolution |
| 18F-FDG-PET/CT | + | ++ | + | +++ | -Whole-Body Imaging -Useful in Assessing Treatment Response -Objective Quantification Possible |
-Expensive -No Exact Interpretation Criteria for pSS Available |
MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; PET/CT: positron emission tomography/computed tomography; MALT: mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue. Plus and minus signs are entered as follows: (+++) in case the imaging technique has an excellent contribution to the specific item, (++) for a good contribution, (+) in case the contribution is not yet clear or there is contradictive data, and (−) in case there is no evidence for contribution of the imaging technique to the specific item.