Life-threatening vasculitis associated with sarcoidosis.
We document the case of a young woman with an 8-year history of sarcoidosis managed with low doses of prednisone, who presented with leu-cocytoclastic and medium-size vessel vasculitis. She developed first a hemorrhagic stroke, followed by malignant hypertension and gangrene of the limbs requiring multiple amputations. Vasculitis preceding or associated with sarcoidosis is an uncommon event, rarely leading to a life-threatening complication requiring intense immunosuppressive therapy. In this patient, otherwise unexplained severe vasculitis occurred during low dose corticosteroid therapy and in the absence of active sarcoidosis. Vasculitis must be considered a cause of various complications in patients with sarcoidosis.
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Rheumatology Fellow (H.E.); Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine (C.R.O'C); Professor of Pathology, Chief of Pathology (E.C); Professor of Medicine, Head, Division of Rheumatology (A.J.R.), Cooper Hospital University Medical Center, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Camden, New Jersey.
Oʼconnor
C R
CR
Catalano
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Reginato
A J
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