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Sarcoidosis in Israel: Clinical Outcome Status, Organ Involvement, and Long-Term Follow-Up

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Abstract

Purpose

Sarcoidosis is a chronic granulomatous inflammatory disease of unknown etiology with heterogeneous outcomes. This study reviewed the clinical outcome status (COS) and organ involvement of Israeli sarcoidosis patients during a five-year period. Further, we compared our results to the ‘World Association of Sarcoidosis and Other Granulomatous Disease’ (WASOG) COS and the ‘A Case Control Etiologic Study of Sarcoidosis’ (ACCESS) instruments in order to evaluate their relevance to the Israeli population.

Methods

The retrospective study group consisted of 166 sarcoidosis patients for the period of 2010–2015. Data on demographic characteristics, presenting symptoms, co-morbidities, disease duration, lung function tests, treatment program, chest X-ray, and chest high-resolution computed tomography were collected.

Results

The median patient age was 62 ± 14, which was significantly higher than the WASOG and ACCESS cohorts (p < 0.0001), and the average disease duration was 9.8 ± 7.5 years. Resembling the ACCESS cohort, most patients were women (67.5%). The majority of patients suffered from constitutional symptoms (86%), as well as from respiratory symptoms (38.5%). Similarly to the ACCESS cohort, 91% of patients presented with lung involvement. However, significant differences in the involvement of other organs were noted, including lymph nodes (3 vs. 15.2%), liver (3.6 vs. 11.5%), CNS (7.2 vs. 4.6%), and joints (3.6 vs. 0.5%). In addition, significant differences were observed in the COS of the Israeli population in comparison to the WASOG data (p < 0.01).

Conclusions

Sarcoidosis in Israel is a unique and challenging disease with its clinical presentations that differ from previously reported studies.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mrs. Nava Jelin for the statistical analyses and Ms. Tatiana Epstein for the English editing.

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Author notes

  1. Natalia Markevitz and Gali Epstein Shochet have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pulmonary Department, Meir Medical Center, Tshernichovsky 59, 442801, Kfar Saba, Israel

    Natalia Markevitz, Gali Epstein Shochet, Lilach Israeli-Shani & David Shitrit

  2. Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Natalia Markevitz, Gali Epstein Shochet, Yair Levi, Lilach Israeli-Shani & David Shitrit

  3. Department of Internal Medicine E, Meir Medical Center, Kfar Saba, Israel

    Yair Levi

Authors
  1. Natalia Markevitz
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  2. Gali Epstein Shochet
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  4. Lilach Israeli-Shani
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  5. David Shitrit
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Correspondence to David Shitrit.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. For this type of study, formal consent is not required.

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Markevitz, N., Epstein Shochet, G., Levi, Y. et al. Sarcoidosis in Israel: Clinical Outcome Status, Organ Involvement, and Long-Term Follow-Up. Lung 195, 419–424 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-017-0015-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00408-017-0015-4

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