The diagnosis of Sjögren’s disease (SD) relies on expert opinion and fulfillment of items in classification criteria sets, together with additional clinical, pathological, and laboratory evaluations. Imaging is not yet part of any criteria set, although sonography has recently demonstrated strong potential for inclusion as an additional item. Besides sonography, some evidence suggests that magnetic resonance (MR) imaging could also be a useful adjunct in diagnosing this disease. We describe and illustrate the findings of SD on conventional pulse sequences and MR sialography, as well as comment on their diagnostic performance. The role of advanced imaging techniques, including diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and proton-density fat fraction (PDFF) imaging, and evidence regarding how MR relates to other frequently requested complementary tests are also reviewed. We conclude by presenting several knowledge gaps that, in our opinion, need to be addressed before MR imaging can be included in the diagnostic workup of SD.
Metzner et al. (Tue,) studied this question.