I have found a little bit on-line about Sjogrens affecting blood vessels in some people. Has anyone here had this happen? I'm wondering because I got my results from my full-body thermography this week, and one thing it showed was a great deal of heat (bright RED color) over the carotid arteries on both sides of my neck. The MD who wrote the report wrote that it could be possible plaque build-up or a high CRP level. So I am wondering if maybe this is Sjogrens related. I've had thermography before, and the intense red that goes even to white right on those arteries is about as much an alarm as you can get for those tests.
I've read that high CRP levels are due to inflammation --- and we certainly have inflammation when we have autoimmune diseases.
Vasculitis is common in SS and of course Raynauds is a blood vessel disease although with neurological overtones.
Could it be that your results are actually due to autonomic dysfunction causing blood flow anomalies ask th medic straight as autonomic dysfunction is pretty well universal in SS including postural hypotension.
Like many of us here, I have Raynaud's Phenomenon. This summer my finger tips have been red, swollen and look almost blistered, feel like there are tight rubber bands around them, so I just asked my GP if Rayanud's can flare up in the summer, he said no.
I also asked about autonomic nervous system dysfunction, he said he didn't know about that, but stated that autoimmune diseases seem to have no bounds, and are highly underestimated.
I've already been to 3 or 4 neurologists, the most I got out of any of them was mild CT in my wrists and 'STIFF' as a diagnosis, so won't be going back there! It's on the list for my Rheum.
Not sure if this is relevant to the post, but thought I'd throw it out there!
DLT, sorry to hear of you having to deal with this! Hope you can get some solid answers and solutions!
Yes!!! I wish we could form our own forum or conference or something. We all need to talk on the same page regarding our symptoms & suffering. We need verify for our selves what doctors know so little about. Sjogren’s is very symptomatic, very varied and very???
I have had vasculitis is the past. At first they thought it was a stroke. A very good radioligist called my primary gp and my rhuemy and discussed my case with them.
Ya know, I have heart issues separately from SS. I have Raynaud's also but it hasn't been as bad over the last few months. When I am at the cardiologist he always checks in on the rest of my history as he feels they are all related. When I mentioned it hadn't been so bad lately, he told me to talk to my rheumy about one of the meds that I am on for the heart. Apparently it ends up helping with Raynaud's. Sounds to me like vascular things could easily be tied to this somehow.
SK, I get the same thing in my fingers sometimes. Its very weird and it comes out of nowhere. All of my docs seem to just accept it as part of this that my thermostat as a whole is off so odd things like that really aren't weird at all. Also, as far as autonomic issues, I have a first cousin with dysautonomia. While her's is likely triggered by an injury there are times where it can be tied to autoimmune issues. Scary stuff. It all seems to depend on where it chooses to attack.
Wow, thank you for all the responses, everybody. Thanks for telling me about autonomic dysfunction, Assybish because I didn't know about that. I know I had a rapid heart rate last year for about a month, and it would not go down even if I laid down and got very relaxed. But it fixed itself. And thanks for mentioning vasculitis, Purplebutterfly because I looked that one up, too. (I learn so much here!) It sounds like that one is a good possibility on what is happening to my carotid arteries - and maybe other vessels that I don't even know about right now. I go to a new doctor in a couple weeks who will, I hope, send me for an ultrasound of that, at least. I'm glad we can all talk together about this part of Sjogrens, too, Sally. I agree about the SJO -- very varied with each person. Thanks for the sympathy, SLK! Sure, throw everything into the discussion because we never know what could be related.