The Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR) has awarded $100,000 in funding to support U.S.-based research projects aimed at improving knowledge and diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis, a type of sarcoidosis that affects the heart. The funds were split into two cardiac sarcoidosis-specific grants, of $50,000 each. One…

Acthar Gel (repository corticotropin injection) may be a cost-effective approach relative to standard-of-care glucocorticoid therapy for adults with advanced active pulmonary sarcoidosis. That’s according to an analysis done by the therapy’s developer Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals, which found that “the initial high cost of Acthar Gel treatment for sarcoidosis…

Blood levels of the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) — a common sarcoidosis biomarker — were able to distinguish between newly diagnosed sarcoidosis patients with single versus multiple organ involvement, a study shows. Also, higher blood levels of interleukin-2 receptor (IL-2R), an inflammatory marker, were linked with multiple organ involvement. ACE…

In Finland, only 2% of sarcoidosis patients without symptoms of eye involvement indeed had ocular sarcoidosis, suggesting that routine eye examinations are not needed in the Finnish patient population. But as the frequency of ocular sarcoidosis varies considerably among people with sarcoidosis worldwide, “more studies are needed to…

The prognosis for people with cardiac sarcoidosis may depend on the condition of their heart at diagnosis and not on whether other organs are also affected, a study in Japan suggests. Isolated cardiac sarcoidosis, where the disease is limited to the heart, is a significant risk factor for worse…

For a young man in Belgium, a month-long headache combined with slurred speech and walking difficulties were the result of neurosarcoidosis, or sarcoidosis affecting the nervous system, a case study shows. The man’s neurosarcoidosis was part of a widespread form of sarcoidosis affecting multiple other organs, including the…

I was 7 years old when I saw “Poltergeist,” the 1982 film about a family that moves into a house possessed by angry spirits. While there are countless frightening moments in the film, the worst for me was when 8-year-old Robbie is attacked by his doll, a clown…

Workplace exposure to silica, mold/mildew, and pesticides were associated with an increased risk of pulmonary sarcoidosis in a recent review study. By analyzing data from dozens of published studies, scientists identified more than 80 different airborne factors that have been linked to the disease in at least one study.

Researchers in Austria and the U.K. have created the first mouse model that mimics the human disease of cardiac sarcoidosis. “To our best knowledge this is the first animal model of cardiac sarcoidosis that recapitulates major … hallmarks of human disease,” scientists wrote, adding that it is expected to…

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, the kind where nothing seems to go right, where a dozen things have gone wrong before you’ve even left the house? OK, technically, I did leave my apartment, and came back, and left again, and came back again. And that…