New progress in classification and diagnosis of Sjögren's syndrome

Sjögren's syndrome(SS)is a complex connective tissue disease, with an incidence only secondary to rheumatoid arthritis. The initial record was case reports in the late 19th century. In 1930, Henrik Sjögren proposed the conception of “Keratoconjunctivitis Sicca”for the first time, and preliminarily realized that SS was a systemic disease. Subsequently, the discovery of specific autoantibodies and the application of labial biopsy technique significantly improved the accuracy for SS diagnosis. As the understanding the disease improving, different classification criteria were proposed to improve the diagnostic accuracy. However, there still no classification criteria that can be applied as diagnostic criteria so far due to uncovered pathological mechanism of the disease. Currently, comprehensive managements are required with the cooperation of rheumatology, ophthalmology, and stomatology department. Further exploration of the pathogenesis and development of new diagnostic tools are expected to improve the diagnosis of SS. The paper aims to review the development of the classification criteria and to propose new ophthalmic examinations in order to improve the diagnosis of SS.