• Toshiyuki Nagai, Shun Kohsaka, Shigeo Okuda, Toshihisa Anzai, Koichiro Asano, and Keiichi Fukuda.
• Chest. 2014 Oct 1;146(4):1064-72.

BackgroundCardiac death is the leading cause of mortality associated with sarcoidosis in Japan. However, the involvement of sarcoidosis infiltration often remains undetected. Recently, late gadolinium enhancement with cardiovascular MRI (LGE-CMR) imaging has been introduced for the detection of myocardial infiltrative disease, as it enables the detection of even minor myocardial damage. We investigated the incidence and prognostic value of LGE-CMR in patients with extracardiac sarcoidosis without cardiac manifestations.MethodsSixty-one consecutive patients who met the histologic and clinical criteria for sarcoidosis, and who did not have signs or symptoms of cardiovascular involvement, were prospectively recruited. LGE-CMR was performed at the time of enrollment, and patients were classified into positive or negative late gadolinium enhancement groups based on the findings. The study end point was a composite of all-cause death, symptomatic arrhythmia, and heart failure necessitating admission.ResultsPatients were predominantly middle aged (57 ± 15 years) and female (66%), and most had stable disease activity that did not require treatment with immunosuppressants. LGE-CMR detected cardiac involvement in eight patients (13%). Interventricular septal thinning detected by echocardiography was an independent predictor of LGE-CMR-detected cardiac involvement. During the follow-up period of 50 ± 12 months, no significant difference in adverse events was noted between patients in the LGE-CMR-positive and LGE-CMR-negative groups.ConclusionsLGE-CMR detected cardiac involvement in 13% of patients with sarcoidosis without cardiac manifestation, but both patients with and without LGE had relatively low event rates.Trial RegistryJapan Primary Registries Network; No.: UMIN000001549; URL: www.umin.ac.jp.

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