Focus on Sarcoidosis
Abnormal FeV1 and body mass index are associated with impaired cough-related quality of life in sarcoidosis patients
Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease that mainly manifests within the lungs and may thereby impair lung function. Beyond and independently from organ impairment, sarcoidosis may affect quality of life which can be quantified by questionnaires. The Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) has been developed to assess cough-related quality of life. We analysed data from a prospectively collected cohort of sarcoidosis patients for validation of the German LCQ version. Our analyses demonstrated that LCQ values add additional information beyond routinely monitored parameters (e.g.Genomic biomarkers in chronic beryllium disease and sarcoidosis
Background Previous gene expression studies have identified genes IFNγ, TNFα, RNase 3, CXCL9, and CD55 as potential biomarkers for sarcoidosis and/or chronic beryllium disease (CBD). We hypothesized that differential expression of these genes could function as diagnostic biomarkers for sarcoidosis and CBD, and prognostic biomarkers for sarcoidosis. Study Design/Methods We performed RT-qPCR on whole blood samples from CBD (n = 132), beryllium sensitized (BeS) (n = 109), and sarcoidosis (n = 99) cases and non-diseased controls (n = 97) to determine differential expression of target genes.Mortality for sarcoidosis patients on the transplant wait list in the Lung Allocation Score era: Experience from a high volume center
Sarcoidosis progresses to end stage fibrotic lung disease in 10% of patients and may necessitate lung transplantation. Organ allocation is currently determined by the Lung Allocation Score (LAS), but its performance in a sarcoidosis population has not been evaluated.
