EXTENDED REPORT

Sarcoid arthritis: clinical characteristics, diagnostic aspects, and risk factors

H Visser¹, K Vos¹, E Zanelli², W Verduyn², G M Th Schreuder², I Speyer¹, F C Breedveld¹, J M W Hazes¹

¹ Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands
² Department of Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion, Leiden University Medical Centre

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
Dr H Visser, Department of Rheumatology, C4-R, Leiden University Medical Centre, PO Box 9600, 2300 RC Leiden, The Netherlands;
F.C.Breedveld{at}LUMC.nl

Objectives: (a) To describe the clinical characteristics of acute sarcoid arthritis and the diagnostic value of its presenting clinical features; (b) to evaluate whether disease onset is seasonal; and (c) to evaluate whether smoking behaviour or the presence of HLA class II alleles is a risk factor for the disease.

Methods: 579 consecutive patients with recent onset arthritis who had been newly referred to a rheumatology outpatient clinic were included in a prospective cohort study. The presenting clinical features, the smoking behaviour, and the results of HLA-DQ and HLA-DR DNA typing of 55 patients with sarcoid arthritis, 524 patients with other arthritides of recent onset, and samples of the normal population were compared.

Results: In all cases the disease showed a self limiting arthritis and overall good prognosis. The diagnostic ability of a combination of four clinical features—symmetrical ankle arthritis, symptoms of less than two months, age below 40 years, and erythema nodosum—was exceptionally high. When test positivity is defined as the presence of at least three of four criteria the set rendered a sensitivity of 93%, a specificity of 99%, a positive predictive value of 75%, and a negative predictive value of 99.7%. The disease clustered in the months March–July. The disease was negatively associated with smoking (odds ratio (OR) 0.09; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.02 to 0.37) and positively associated with the presence of the DQ2 (DQB1*0201)-DR3 (DRB1*0301) haplotype (OR 12.33; 95% CI 5.97 to 25.48).

Conclusion: The disease entity acute sarcoid arthritis has highly diagnostic clinical features. The seasonal clustering, the protective effect of smoking, and the association with specific HLA class II antigens support the hypothesis that it results from exposure of susceptible hosts to environmental agents through the lungs.

Keywords: sarcoid arthritis; diagnosis; clinical presentation; risk factors

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; EAC, early arthritis clinic; NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs; OR, odds ratio

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Grunewald, J., Eklund, A. (2009). Lofgren's Syndrome: Human Leukocyte Antigen Strongly Influences the Disease Course. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 179: 307-312 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Grunewald, J., Eklund, A. (2007). Sex-Specific Manifestations of Lofgren's Syndrome. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 175: 40-44 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Paniagua, O., Nugent, K. M. (2006). A 44-Year-Old Woman With Polyarthritis, Fever, and Hilar Adenopathy. Chest 129: 816-821 [Full Text]  
• Moore, S. L., Teirstein, A. E. (2003). Musculoskeletal Sarcoidosis: Spectrum of Appearances at MR Imaging. RadioGraphics 23: 1389-1399 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Iannuzzi, M. C., Maliarik, M. J., Poisson, L. M., Rybicki, B. A. (2003). Sarcoidosis Susceptibility and Resistance HLA-DQB1 Alleles in African Americans. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 167: 1225-1231 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Rybicki, B. A., Maliarik, M. J., Poisson, L. M., Sheffer, R., Chen, K. M., Major, M., Chase, G. A., Iannuzzi, M. C. (2003). The Major Histocompatibility Complex Gene Region and Sarcoidosis Susceptibility in African Americans. Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med. 167: 444-449 [Abstract] [Full Text]