Sicca symptom in a patient with hemochromatosis: minor salivary gland biopsy for differential diagnosis

This paper reports a case of hemochromatosis with sicca symptom. The patient was a 59-year-old female who had been received a series of intravenous iron injections and blood transfusions because of anemia owing to side-effects of a chemotherapeutic agent. She complained of dry mouth and dry eyes in addition to symptoms of hemochromatosis. The histological appearance of the labial salivary gland, with heavy deposition of iron in acinar and duct epithelial cells and absence of focal lymphoid cell infiltration, did not support a diagnosis of Sj?gren's syndrome but suggested functional damage of the salivary glands related to iron. The patient was given desferrioxamine, and clinical symptoms improved; re-examined labial salivary gland biopsy showed no iron deposition in any parenchymal cells after the treatment.