we studied sera of 107 patients with autoimmune rheumatic diseases ( 46 with classical rheumatoid arthritis ( ra ) , 36 with systemic lupus erythematosus ( sle ) and 25 with primary sjogren 's syndrome ( ss ) . none of these patients had abdominal pain or gastrointestinal symptoms at the time of blood collection . we used as controls 81 normal age and sex matched volunteers . the presence of hyperamylasemia i ) of p-type in 6 of 46 patients ( 13 % ) with ra and ii ) of p-type and s-type in 11 of 36 patients ( 30.5 % ) with sle and 6 of the 25 patients ( 24 % ) with primary ss suggests that asymptomatic pancreatic damage in autoimmune rheumatic diseases may occur frequently especially in patients with sle .
C0004364
autoimmune
C0024141
sle