Association of demographic, laboratory and clinical parameters with HRCT-chest findings in patients with sarcoidosis

Introduction: It remains poorly understood whether different CT patterns observed in sarcoidosis are associated with specific parameters, disease behaviors’ or outcomes.

Objectives: To explore the factors associated with 4 different CT patterns in patients with sarcoidosis.

Methods: We analyzed the data of 112 patients with sarcoidosis, under the care of a tertiary referral ILD center between 2017 and 2019. We then categorized patients into 4 groups based on their CT-chest findings: signs of parenchymal inflammatory changes, only fibrotic change, both inflammatory and fibrotic features, and mediastinal lymphadenopathy without parenchymal involvement.

Results: Of 112 patients, 46.4% had inflammatory CT changes, 24.1% inflammatory and fibrotic findings, 15% had only fibrotic features and 18% had only mediastinal lymphadenopathy. Demographics, ACE levels, lymphocyte count and serum calcium did not differ significantly among the four groups.

Multi-organ sarcoidosis (involvement of more than one organ) was statistically more probable among younger patients presenting with radiologically inflammatory disease rather than in patients with concomitant fibrosis or without any parenchymal involvement. As expected, patients with either only inflammatory disease or lymphadenopathy were less likely to be treated.

Conclusion: This is an observational study showing that multi-organ sarcoidosis is more common in younger patients who present with non-fibrotic CT-chest changes.