Above - CKCS (with lissamine green)
The Sjogren's International Clinical Collaborative Alliance (SICCA) is an NIH-funded 10-year study to define the diagnostic criteria for primary Sjogren's syndrome and to collect data and bio-specimens to be used for future research in the genetics and molecular biology of the disease. We are now in the process of extending the grant for another 5 years. The ultimate goal is to find the cause of Sjogren's syndrome and develop a cure. To do that we need about 800 to 1000 primary Sjogren's patients from genetically diverse populations around the world.
Sicca means dry. These patients, among other things, have very dry eyes (keratoconjuncitvitis sicca or KCS) and a very, very dry mouth (xerostomia). Patients have difficulty crying, eating, and swallowing. The disease affects females 20 times more frequently than males.
SICCA Study Sites:
- Beijing, China
- Kanazawa, Japan
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Madurai, India
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- London, U.K.
- Baltimore, Maryland, USA (Johns Hopkins University)
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (University of Pennsylvania)
- San Francisco, California, USA (coordinating center at UCSF)