sydrome

[confused]

Should you not take off syndrome as this has now been listed as a disease?
Sicca is dry eyes mouth and is not the same thing!

[Linda196]

There are three levels of classification.

Sicca is a symptom, dry mouth and eyes, from any cause, but could still be from Sjogren's. It has no supporting clinical data like positive blood or tissue tests. It may be a preliminary to an actual diagnosis of either the syndrome or the disease.

Sjogren's Syndrome is a collection of the classical symptoms, like sicca, fatigue or general malaise, with or without supporting clinical data.

Sjogren's Disease is the term for when the syndrome is accompanied by "non-glandular" or systemic symptoms, like joint, muscle, nerve or organ involvement with no other apparent cause.

All three are valid terms, and the last two are both valid diagnoses.

[confused]

sjogrens now has its own diagnostic code and it is different from Sicca which also has its own diagnostic code.

A diagnostic code is required by most insurance companies to be able to have things paid for.

[meirish]

I would not be surprised if they did the diagnostic code for Sicca to help explain and help the medical field be able to differentiate the sicca issue from the sicca symptom of the sjogrens. The sicca is dry mouth, etc and is common as a term used for dryness in many, many diseases plus it is used to describe the dry mouth, etc caused by medication side effects. So often over the years sicca is used in articles or conversations and becomes confusing as it is extremely common in the optometric field for the notorious dry eyes treated every day by optometrists.

And you are right, every darn disease process has to have a diagnostic code If you ever have a bill that is sent to you because your insurance won't cover make sure to call the billing department at your clinic or hospital. Most of the time these errors are caused by the wrong diagnostic code. It has happened to me a couple times. I find it very frustrating and have to remind myself that often just hitting the wrong key when keyboarding can screw up our world. Have a good day. meirish

[Scottietottie]

Hi 

Pretty sure we have viewers from all over the place coming here to look for information. In the UK most people use our national health service so we don't have codes or insurance.

Take care - Scottie 

[confused]

Sorry Scottie,
Did not mean to step on anyones toes.  I will put the USA on my site so you will know which country I am talking.
Reason for the information is that it seems many people are being told very different things in this country.

Linda could you remove the site if it is causing too much confusion?

Thanks

[Linda196]

I'm not sure which site you mean, Confused, there is no site posted in this thread. Are you referring to another post?