Sarcoidosis patients on systemic corticosteroid at higher risk of death

The risk of death is increased among patients with sarcoidosis compared with the general population, suggests a recent study, noting that mortality is even higher in those treated with systemic corticosteroids.

A team of investigators conducted a population-based cohort study to assess mortality in patients with sarcoidosis, stratified by gender, age, and systemic corticosteroid treatment and to describe comorbidities in this group.

The investigators identified patients diagnosed with sarcoidosis from 2001 to 2015 in the Danish National Patient Registry. They also performed subgroup analyses on patients treated and not treated with systemic corticosteroids within 3 years of the initial diagnosis (as a proxy for disease severity).

Prediagnostic comorbidity was assessed using the Deyo‒Charlson Comorbidity Index. Patients with sarcoidosis were matched 1:4 with controls from the general population.

A total of 9,795 patients diagnosed with sarcoidosis were identified. Their mean age was 46.5 years, and more than half (55 percent) were male.

Patients had a 48-percent increased risk of death (adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 1.48, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], 1.31‒1.68). In all age groups and in both genders, mortality was higher in the sarcoidosis group than in the control group.

For patients treated with systemic corticosteroids, the HR for death was 1.78 (95 percent CI, 1.49‒2.13); for those receiving no treatment, the HR was 1.24 (95 percent CI, 1.04‒1.48). Of note, sarcoidosis was the most commonly reported cause of death (13.3 percent).