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REVIEW PAPER
Risk of venous, arterial, and rare thrombotic events in adults with Sjögren’s disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis
1
Department of Internal Medicine, K G Hospital, Chittaranjan, Indian Railways Medical Service, West Bengal, India
2
Department of Pharmacology, Government Erode Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India
3
Department of Physiology, Government Erode Medical College and Hospital, Tamil Nadu, India
4
Vinayaka Mission’s College of Pharmacy, Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation (Deemed to be University), Salem, India
These authors had equal contribution to this work
Submission date: 2025-08-03
Final revision date: 2026-02-28
Acceptance date: 2026-03-23
Publication date: 2026-07-10
Corresponding author
Reumatologia 2026;64(4):296-312
KEYWORDS
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Sjögren’s disease (SjD) is associated with increased thrombotic and cardiovascular risk. We systematically reviewed and meta-analyzed venous, arterial, and rare vascular outcomes in SjD.
Following PRISMA 2020 (PROSPERO registered), we searched major databases without language restrictions, extracted adjusted estimates, and graded certainty using GRADE.
Twelve studies (> 426,000 participants) met the criteria. Venous thromboembolism (VTE) showed a consistent, clinically important increase (≈ twofold). Arterial outcomes – ischemic stroke, myocardial infarction, and composite major adverse cardiovascular events – were heterogeneous, varying by age and geographic region. Heart failure, predominantly with preserved ejection fraction, was increased across settings. Rare events (e.g., cerebral venous thrombosis, thrombotic microangiopathy) were described narratively.
Sjögren’s disease is associated with substantially increased venous thrombotic risk, variable arterial associations, and an under-recognized burden of heart failure. Clinical care should combine risk-stratified VTE prevention with rigorous cardiovascular risk management. Research priorities include harmonized, multi-ethnic cohorts and prospective trials testing time-limited thromboprophylaxis during high-risk windows.
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Copyright: © Narodowy Instytut Geriatrii, Reumatologii i Rehabilitacji w Warszawie. This is an Open Access journal, all articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license.
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