In their report on cardiac sarcoidosis, Smedema et al (July 2005)1 remarkably conclude that patients without cardiac symptoms do not require more sensitive studies to detect heart disease. This report, while of interest, is limited by a patient follow-up that varied widely from 3 to 54 months. Since this study does not well characterize the natural history of asymptomatic cardiac sarcoidosis an...

BACKGROUND Cardiac sarcoidosis is associated with major adverse cardiac events including cardiac arrest, for which anti-inflammatory treatment is indicated. Oral corticosteroid is the mainstay among treatment options; however, adverse effects are a major concern with long-term use. It would be beneficial for providers to predict treatment response and prognosis for proper management strategy of...

Background: Cardiac Sarcoidosis (CS) accounts for 85% of sarcoidosis-related deaths in Japan and 13-25% in North America. Objective: To evaluate effectiveness and tolerance of TNF alpha inhibitor (TNFI) treatment in CS. Methods: From a French multicenter cohort of patients with extra-thoracic sarcoidosis, we retrospectively analyzed patients who fulfilled following inclusion criteria: A definit...

Background Sarcoidosis is a multisystem disease characterized by infiltration of tissues by non-caseating granulomas and cardiac disease associated with arrhythmias, conduction disturbances, heart failure and death. Previous case reports have described late gadolinium enhancement (LGE) in the right ventricle (RV), however, this has been interpreted to be a rare feature of cardiac sarcoidosis. W...

Sarcoidosis is a rare but potentially fatal multisystem granulomatous disease of unknown etiology. While a number of clinical manifestations may develop, cardiac involvement (prior to or coincident with sarcoidosis of other organs) is an important prognostic factor. Recently, we encountered a patient with cardiac sarcoidosis who presented with complete atrioventricular (AV) block and sustained ...

Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease of unknown pathogenesis that can affect virtually any organ system. Cardiac involvement results in significant morbidity and mortality, with some studies reporting that cardiac involvement accounts for up to 25% of all deaths from sarcoidosis in the United States and more than half of all deaths in Japan. Many deaths seem to be arrhythmic in nature and are...

BACKGROUND Cardiac involvement in sarcoidosis is often silent and may lead to sudden death. This study was designed to assess the value of programmed electric stimulation of the ventricle (PES) for risk stratification in patients with sarcoidosis and evidence of preclinical cardiac involvement on imaging studies. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with biopsy-proven systemic sarcoidosis but without...

BACKGROUND Patients with cardiac sarcoidosis are at increased risk of ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation. OBJECTIVE We tested the hypothesis that the wearable cardioverter defibrillator can be used to mitigate the risk of sudden cardiac death among cardiac sarcoidosis patients. METHODS A retrospective review of the commercial database identified cardiac sarcoidosis patients who wore the w...

BACKGROUND The presence of myocardial fibrosis by cardiac MRI has prognostic value in cardiac sarcoidosis, and localisation may be equally relevant to clinical outcomes. OBJECTIVE We aimed to analyse cardiac damage and function in detail and explore the relationship with clinical outcomes in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis using cardiac MRI. METHODS We included 81 consecutive patients wit...