Rheumatological manifestations of chronic graft versus host disease - Case series

Objectives

To present the rheumatological manifestations of chronic graft versus host disease (cGVHD) and describe how they differ from primary systemic connective tissue diseases.

Methods

Description of 7 patients with cGVHD with symptoms resembling Sjögren's syndrome and scleroderma, with a critical review of the literature.

Results

7 patients treated at the hematology department, who developed cGVHD with present antinuclear antibodies, were referred to the rheumatology department for further evaluation. All patients presented symptoms of dry eye syndrome confirmed with ophthalmic tests. If the diagnosis of GVHD was not an exclusion criterion, Sjögren's syndrome criteria would be met by 4 of our patients – they presented not only with dryness but also with typical antibodies, inflammatory changes in salivary glands on ultrasound examination, and mononuclear cell infiltration in histopathological examination of labial salivary glands. Additionally, three patients presented with scleroderma-like syndromes, but with symptoms easy to differentiate from systemic sclerosis.

Conclusion

cGVHD may be difficult to distinguish from Sjögren's syndrome, but such distinction is important due to the different standards of treatment in cGVHD and primary connective tissue diseases.