Sjögren's disease & overlap diseases
Standardization of minor salivary gland biopsy interpretation in Sjögren’s disease using the 2017 EULAR recommendations: a monocentric study
Authors' conclusion
Inter- and intra-rater reliability for diagnosing FLS and determining FS is good, whereas reliability for grading structural damage remains limited.
Study context
- Population
- Patients with suspected Sjögren's disease (SjD) undergoing minor salivary gland biopsy (MSGB)196 slides
- Comparison
- Inter- and intra-rater reliability of MSGB interpretation: expert examiner A (twice, 2-month interval) vs routine service pathologists and expert examiner B
- Examiner A (ExA)n = 196reference
- Examiner B (ExB)n = 115
- Outcome
- Inter- and intra-rater reliability of MSGB interpretation per 2017 EULAR recommendations (Cohen's κ for qualitative variables; Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for quantitative measures)
Methodological detailsmonocentric, standardized blinded protocol
- Monocentric
- Standardized blinded protocol
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Inter- and intra-rater agreement
Glandular area, dichotomized focus score (FS) (≥1 or <1) and diagnosis of focal lymphocytic sialadenitis (FLS): substantial to almost perfect agreement (inter- and intra-rater)
κ ≥ 0.6
Structural damage assessment: only moderate to fair agreement across both analyses
κ ≤ 0.4
FS, ExR vs ExA: good reliability
≥0.61
FS, ExA vs ExB and ExA intra-rater: almost perfect reliability
ICC ≥0.76
Original publication
Standardization of minor salivary gland biopsy interpretation in Sjögren’s disease using the 2017 EULAR recommendations: a monocentric study. Rheumatology (Oxford). Published 25 June 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →