Article Text

Download PDFPDF
Sarcoid arthritis: clinical characteristics, diagnostic aspects, and risk factors
  1. H Visser1,
  2. K Vos1,
  3. E Zanelli2,
  4. W Verduyn2,
  5. G M Th Schreuder2,
  6. I Speyer1,
  7. F C Breedveld1,
  8. J M W Hazes1
  1. 1Department of Rheumatology, Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), Leiden, The Netherlands
  2. 2Department of Immunohaematology and Blood Transfusion, Leiden University Medical Centre
  1. 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

Abstract

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.

  • sarcoid arthritis
  • diagnosis
  • clinical presentation
  • risk factors
  • CI, confidence interval
  • EAC, early arthritis clinic
  • NSAIDs, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
  • OR, odds ratio

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes