Active clinical trials for "Sarcoidosis"

A number of studies have shown that the quality of life of two common interstitial lung diseases (ild), sarcoidosis and pulmonary fibrosis patients, is impaired and that fatigue is a substantial problem for those patients. Furthermore, breathlessness is an additional major problem in pulmonary fibrosis. In the field of cardiovascular disease and breast cancer, personality factors have shown to play a role in patient's morbidity, mortality, quality of life, fatigue, depressive symptoms, and one study showed a predictive role of personality factors in health care consumption. No studies examining personality factors have been performed in sarcoidosis or pulmonary fibrosis. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to examine the role of personality factors as predictors of fatigue, quality of life, prognosis, and health care consumption in sarcoidosis and pulmonary fibrosis. In this study a number of possible moderators, such as social support, will also be examined, aiming to get a full picture of the relationship between the various factors examined. Known and new sarcoidosis and pulmonary fibrosis patients (inclusion period 1 year) of ild care team of the outpatient clinic of the department of Respiratory Medicine of the University Hospital Maastricht will be asked to participate through completing questionnaires at baseline and every six months for 18 months, and allowing the researchers access to their medical records for the purpose of this study.

L-[3-18F]-α-methyltyrosine (FMT) is amino-acid tracer for positron emission tomography (PET), and is used for tumor detection because malignant tumor cells accumulate 18F-FMT based on the increased expression of amino-acid transporter. This study was conducted to investigate a usefulness of 18F-FMT PET in combination with 18F-FDG PET for the diagnosis of sarcoidosis in patients with suspected malignancy.

Sarcoidosis is a chronic lung disease that is characterized by fatigue, shortness of breath, chest pain and reduced lung function. Suffering from these diseases has a very negative effect on the quality of life. When people are suspected of having sarcoidosis various markers in the blood are measured. Ultimate diagnosis, however, always requires invasive techniques such as bronchoscopy and lung biopsy. Consequently, there is an urgent need for a new diagnostic tool that is easy, quick and most of all non-invasive and thus friendly for the patient. Such a new diagnostic tool might be found in examining the exhaled air of patients, which contains a complex mixture of so-called volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are the result of damaging processes that occur in the lung. Determining the VOC profile in the breath can be used as a biomarker, or biological indicator, of those damaging processes. In other words, searching for unique VOC profiles in the breath of sarcoidosis patients might lead to the development of a diagnostic tool that only uses their exhaled breath. The current study involves 25 sarcoidosis patients and 25 healthy volunteers. The aim of this study is find VOCs in exhaled air that can be used to diagnose sarcoidosis. In a previous study, sarcoidosis-specific VOCs were found, which we intend to validate using the current study.

Neurosarcoidosis represents up to 10% of sarcoidosis cases. Little is known about its long-term course, even if the disease remains mainly monophasic with/w.o. sequelae, or if bouts of new symptoms may arise over years (polyphasic). Using retrospective data from patients diagnosed with neurosarcoidosis in three French referral centers for neuro-inflammation, the investigators aim to determine patterns of disease course, according to the initial presentation and the treatments used.

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disease that can affect nearly any organ in the body. While most commonly affecting the lungs, vision threatening eye involvement occurs in approximately 25% of patients with sarcoid. Eye involvement may lead to a chronic, sight-threatening uveitis which may result in cataract, glaucoma, and macular edema. The treatment of sarcoid uveitis involves the use of topical and systemic corticosteroids or potent immunosuppressive agents (medications that suppress the body's immune system) both of which can cause severe long-term side effects. The adverse effects of steroids may be avoided by treatment with the use as H.P. Acthar® Gel. The effectiveness of H.P. Acthar® Gel in the treatment of sarcoid uveitis and patient quality of live have not been previously examined. These issues, will be explored in this research.

Nasal, tracheal and bronchial sampling of MLF in patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis(IPF), sarcoidosis, tuberculosis(TB), asthma and COPD. Similar sampling from healthy controls for comparative data. Aim: To characterise the molecular basis of the upper and lower airway mucosa inflammatory response in different respiratory diseases. To assess molecular biomarkers and signatures to see if these can aid diagnosis, stratification of these respiratory diseases. To direct personalised medicine and rationalise therapy. Outcome measures:Measurement of levels of inflammation, coagulation, complement activation and fibrosis in MLF, transcriptomics from nasal curettage and airway brushings and to assess the tolerability of absorption procedures in these patients.

Sarcoidosis is a heterogeneous multisystem disorder of unknown etiology which often presents with bilateral hilar lymphadenopathy, pulmonary infiltration and ocular and skin lesions. In addition to possible changes in forced vital capacity (FVC) and carbon monoxide transfer factor (TLCO), a higher prevalence of clinical depression, reduced health status and exercise intolerance have been observed in patients with sarcoidosis. Reduced health status has been related to decreased pulmonary function, depressive symptoms, and to respiratory muscle weakness. Exercise capacity is believed to be limited by dyspnea, an insufficient heart rate response, decreased arterial oxygen tension during exercise, excessive and inefficient ventilation and by respiratory muscle weakness. In the past, exercise capacity was shown to be limited by skeletal muscle weakness in patients with chronic pulmonary or cardiac disease. 67% of the sarcoidosis patients studied by Miller et al terminated their peak exercise test due to "leg complaints". Skeletal muscle weakness is therefore still assumed to be present in patients with sarcoidosis. Treatment with oral corticosteroids, clinical symptoms of depression, myositis, self-reported complaints of fatigue and high circulating levels of tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) are all present in patients with sarcoidosis and can all affect skeletal muscle force and exercise capacity. Additionally, low levels of circulating insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), which can be induced by high levels of TNF-α, and high circulating levels of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-8 (CXCL8) have been associated with skeletal muscle weakness. These interleukins are part of the current concept of the immunopathogenesis of sarcoidosis16 and may be raised in patients with stable sarcoidosis. Recent studies have shown that pulmonary rehabilitation program can lead to improve in the health status and anxiety among patients with chronic obstructive lung disease .However, no study has evaluated the role of pulmonary rehabilitation among patients with sarcoidosis.

The purpose of the trial is to determine the accuracy of Cu-64 labelled DOTATATE for diagnosing cardiac sarcoidosis using PET/CT or PET/MRI.

An observational study aiming to assess the serological profile of SARS-Cov2 patients with systemic diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus, Sjogren syndrome, sarcoidosis, inflammatory myopathies, Behçet's disease, Rheumatoid arthritis and Spondyloarthritis

The purpose of this study is to validate the method of analysing Positron Emission Tomography (PET) images to assess lung inflammation. Development of novel therapeutic drugs requires a biomarker which is sensitive to the underlying disease and can respond to therapeutic interventions. PET is a potential imaging biomarker which can target molecular and cellular processes. There is currently no standardised method of analysing PET lung data and a lack of validation for the existing techniques. This study is divided in to two parts. Part A aims to determine the best method to perform 18F-FDG PET/CT lung analysis and how it correlates with cell counts from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) samples taken from participants with active pulmonary sarcoidosis. Part B will compare imaging data from healthy volunteers who have either undergone a Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) challenge (whereby the lung is temporarily inflamed) or saline equivalent to determine whether lung inflammation can be detected by 18F-FDG PET/CT. No medications will be given and patients will not be asked to stop or change existing medication.