The following is a summary of “Sarcoidosis Diagnostic Score (SDS) System: Impact of Race, sex, organ involvement and duration of symptoms prior to Diagnosis,” published in the July 2024 issue of Pulmonology by Zhou et al.
The Sarcoidosis Diagnostic Score (SDS) system, built upon the WASOG organ involvement criteria, is pivotal in patients with diagnosing sarcoidosis. This study aimed to refine the SDS system by evaluating modifications to enhance its diagnostic accuracy.
Researchers conducted a multicenter study spanning nine worldwide sarcoidosis centers, focusing on biopsy-confirmed patients with sarcoidosis seen over a 7-month. Control patients without sarcoidosis were concurrently assessed at the same sites. The study group compared SDS values derived from clinical and biopsy data across five key groups: duration of symptoms (≤1 year vs. >1 year, ≤2 years vs. >2 years), organ involvement (lung, eye, cardiac), race, and sex.
A total of 990 patients with sarcoidosis and 1,011 controls were included. The SDS-clinical significantly discriminated patients with symptoms lasting more than one year (z-statistic=2.570, p=0.0102) or two years (z-statistic=2.546, p=0.0109). However, assigning two additional points for durations >1 year or >2 years did not improve the sensitivity or specificity of the SDS system. The SDS-clinical threshold for patients with ocular or cardiac involvement was two points higher than that for lung disease. No significant differences in SDS-clinical or biopsy AUC values were observed based on gender or race.
Longer duration of symptoms before diagnosis correlated positively with sarcoidosis diagnosis accuracy. Notably, multi-organ involvement, particularly ocular or cardiac manifestations, enhanced the diagnostic utility of the SDS-clinical. This study underscores the SDS system’s efficacy in diagnosing sarcoidosis across diverse patient demographics and highlights the importance of organ-specific considerations in refining diagnostic approaches.
Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2590041224000436
