Evaluation of diagnosis, treatment and follow up period in sarcoidosis patients

Sarcoidosis is a multisystemic disease of unknown cause, leading to non-caseous granulomatous inflammation to the areas involved. Although all organ systems can be involved in sarcoidosis, in 90% of the cases Lung and intrathorasic lymph node involvement is seen. The spontaneous remission rate is around 60-70% and therefore the disease is generally evaluate in benign with a good prognostic outcome diseases group. The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up process of patients enrolled in our clinic and determine their common characteristics. Our study comprised of the retrospective evaluation of patients applying to Gazi University Medical Faculty Chest Disease Clinic between the years 1994-2010 with the diagnosis of sarcoidosis. The patient?s information was gathered using ?Interstitial Lung Disease File Archives? and ?Follow-up Cards of Sarcoidosis Patients? used for patients follow-up within our clinic.Within 100 patients chosen for the study; the female to male ratio was 2.8, the average age at diagnosis was 44±12 years and approximately half of the female patients were house wives, about 50% of the males and 17% of the females had a history of smoking, smoking patients had advanced disease stage (stage 2-3) at diagnosis than non-smokers. Familial sarcoidosis was present in about 3% of the patients. Dyspnea, coughing and skin leasions (most common erithema nodosum) were the chief clinical complaints. In about 96% of the patients lung CT had been performed at diagnosis. Blood ACE, sedimentation, calcium and urine calcium levels were found to be unrelated with the disease stage. About %34 of the patients had a defective respiratory function tests at the time of diagnosis (most of them had restrictive patern) and %49 of the patients had a decrease in DLCO values. There was a significant relationship between the decrease in FEV1, FVC and DLCO values and disease stage. Within all sarcoidosis patients %98 of them had pulmonary and %43 had extrapulmonary involvement; skin involvement being the most common extrapulmonary involvement. There was a significant decrease in the extrapulmonary involvement with the increase in age and stage. Throughout the follow-up about 43% of the patients were given treatment. The patients responding to the treatment had higher ACE levels compared to patients who remained unresponsive. The relapse rate was higher in advanced stage and patients who were followed up after being given treatment at the time of diagnosis. The decrease in ACE levels and increase in FEV1 and FVC values were found to be statistically significant in patients who responded to the treatment. Our study, with the exception of a few different data, was found to be generally similar with data in the literature.