autoimmune epithelitis

[uker]

I know this description was mentioned by Annette2 earlier this year at the Canadian meeting, but has anyone else noticed that there are a number of articles suggesting that Sjogren's should be reclassified as Autoimmune Epithelitis?
It seems that this gives a clearer indication of the basic nature of the disease.
Does that make us Autoimmune Epithelitis World?  Could we just be AEWorld please? Or, suggestions.....

[Linda196]

Interesting thought, but I think we can stick with Sjogren's World, for the same reasons that Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is still called Lou Gehrig's disease, the etiological names are just too hard to pronounce! Not that Sjogren's is easy mind you!

Considering the looks we get now if we say we have SjS, can you imagine the reaction if we said we have Autoimmune Epithelitis?

[salsen]

LOL   You are so right Linda. I have enough trouble trying to spelling Sjogren's to others much less the other title your gave.  My poor brain would freeze up for sure!!!

[Skylar]

Uker, I did a simple search on Google for Autoimmune Epithelitis and only found one journal article Sjögren's syndrome: autoimmune epithelitis.
by Manoussakis MN, Moutsopoulos HM. All the other searches all seem to reference back to this one article.

Now I realize someone has to start the ball rolling, but I'm not sure this is enough to effect a name change for a disease that is well known as Sjogren's.

Skylar

edit to clarify, I didn't do a careful indepth research, just checked the first page that came up on google.

[uker]

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1601-0825.2006.01292.x
Gosh, I found dozens of articles most published since 2006.  Example above
and http://lup.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/15/5/255 just some.  Have to say I hardly
understand most of them, but it is interesting to key word search.

[Linda196]

Basically and etiological name (like autoimmune epithelitis) is the "scientific or medical" name, while something like Sjogren's is the "common" name. As another example, you probably wouldn't say your have rhinitis (etiological name) when you really mean you have a cold.

[Skylar]

Uker, I've noticed that the articles you linked to all have Moutsopoulos HM. When you read journal articles, last name may be the most important Dr and is usually the one who wrote the article and the driving force who made the research happen and pulled the data together and made the overall assessment of the data. The articles you linked to all have Dr. Moutsopoulos as the last author and he clearly is the driving force in all three. The first author name, BTW is also usually an important Dr. who may or may not have contributed much to the article and may be in a senior position in the department. I have written many journal articles so I'm aware of the naming convention in medical journals. BTW, the names in the middle can be people who did the actually basic research, maybe contributed patients to the study or it they may have nothing to do with the work at all but were listed for political reasons.

Is there anyone else who doesn't share authorship with Dr. Moutsopoulos and are not located in Greece? In otherwords, is anyone else supporting this proposed name change? Now I admit my research was extremely limited and I appreciate that you found others. BTW, I hope you don't mind me being a pain in the butt over this (I apologize to you), but normally a quick research would bring up various authors and sites proposing the name change which I just didn't see.

I do prefer Sjogren's because the name is well known both in the medical community and the general public. However, most people associate dry eyes and mouth with Sjogren's and aren't aware of the other effects of this autoimmune disease. My wish would be to keep the name, but to educate others to make them aware of the whole entity that Sjogren's really is.

Skylar