The following is the summary of “Clinical Outcomes of Radiologic Relapse in Patients With Cardiac Sarcoidosis Under Immunosuppressive Therapies” published in the February 2023 issue of Cardiology by Kaneta, et al.

However, little is known regarding the prevalence and consequences of radiologic relapse under prednisolone (PSL) therapy, even though nuclear imaging can reveal cardiac involvement of cardiac sarcoidosis (CS), including subclinical forms. Therefore, this research aimed to examine the clinical features and prognosis of patients with radiologic relapse. Through a retrospective chart review, 80 CS patients were found whose disease activity on nuclear imaging had decreased at least once after beginning the immunosuppressive medication. 

¹⁸F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose positron emission tomography or gallium-67 scintigraphy was used to detect a radiologic relapse of CS. All-cause mortality, heart failure hospitalization, or fatal arrhythmia were considered necessary components of the composite adverse event definition. At a median of 30 months after starting immunosuppressive medication, radiologic relapse was reported in 31 patients (38.8% of all patients) during the follow-up period (median 2.9 years). All patients who experienced radiologic relapse were given more aggressive immunosuppressive therapy (increased PSL, n=26 [83.9%], other immunosuppressive therapies added to PSL, n=5 [16.1%]). 

There was no distinction in the rates of composite adverse events between those with and those without radiologic recurrence. Many patients with CS experienced a radiologic relapse while on immunosuppressive therapy. However, this was unrelated to clinical results even when treatment was escalated.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002914922011699