“Optimist: Someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is not a disaster, it’s a cha-cha.” — Robert Brault This is exactly what sarcoidosis is like. It’s like we’re living in the song “Cha-Cha Slide.” Having sarcoidosis is a never-ending dance of symptoms, doctors,…

Females with suspected cardiac sarcoidosis experience chest pain and palpitations more frequently than males, but their heart is affected less severely by the condition, a study suggests. Yet, the incidence of either death from all causes or significant ventricular arrhythmia — an abnormal rhythm in the heart’s lower chambers…

We’re all familiar with the evolutionary fight-or-flight response. When faced with stress or danger, we go through physiological changes that enable us to either battle a predator (fight) or escape the situation (flight). However, there is another option, although we probably wouldn’t choose it willingly: to freeze. That’s…

aTyr Pharma has announced that its investigational immunomodulatory therapy for pulmonary sarcoidosis will now be called efzofitimod instead of ATYR1923. The change comes after the United States Adopted Names (USAN) Council and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Nonproprietary Name (INN) expert committee selected efzofitimod as the generic name…

Happy New Year! By now, we’ve all hopefully recovered from the holidays and are starting to get into the groove of 2022, hoping and planning for a better year. The recovery may be a little easier this year, as celebrations have looked different since COVID-19 took over the world. We’ve…

INOpulse, a device that administers inhaled nitric oxide, significantly improved blood flow parameters in a small proof-of-concept clinical trial conducted in people with pulmonary hypertension associated with sarcoidosis (PH-Sarc). “We are pleased with the positive top-line data from this proof-of-concept study,” Naseem Amin, MD, chairman of the board…

Like a coin, there are two sides to every story. A disagreement involves two different perspectives. A face has two cheeks. And sarcoidosis has two faces. I was reminded of this while helping an old friend and his son last week. My friend called me two weeks ago and…

I’ve been reading through my recent columns, and I noticed that I frequently mention how tremendously helpful therapy is. There are a few reasons for that. When I started my blog in 2010, my goal was to help people. I thought that sharing how I got through difficult times…

A recent episode of TV’s “Behind the Mystery” shared the journey of a sarcoidosis patient from diagnosis to treatment as a way to raise awareness of the emotional and medical challenges of living with this complex condition. The episode, shown on Lifetime on Dec. 6 and again Dec. 14,…

A Phase 2 clinical trial is recruiting adults with chronic pulmonary sarcoidosis to investigate the safety and therapeutic potential of CMK389 in improving lung function. CMK389 is an investigational therapy, developed by Novartis, for the treatment of pulmonary sarcoidosis and atopic dermatitis. It was designed to inhibit interleukin 18,…