Diagnosing cardiac sarcoidosis clinically without tissue confirmation.
A 52-year-old woman is described in whom cardiac sarcoidosis was diagnosed clinically on the basis of high-grade heart block, recurring ventricular tachyarrhythmias, and acute cardiac decompensation. Confirmation of sarcoidosis was not determined until necropsy. When it causes cardiac dysfunction, sarcoidosis rarely causes dysfunction of another body organ, although small sarcoid granulomas may also be present in noncardiac organs or tissues. In the present patient, neurosarcoidosis accompanied the cardiac sarcoidosis, but it was the latter that produced the life-threatening symptoms and was fatal.
Sharma
Poonam S
PS
Department of Internal Medicine, Baylor University Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
Lubahn
Jordon G
JG
Donsky
Alan S
AS
Yoon
Anthony Dong H
AD
Carry
Melissa M
MM
Grayburn
Paul A
PA
Wood
Prescilla Barrientos
PB
Ko
Jong Mi
JM
Burton
Elizabeth C
EC
Roberts
William Clifford
WC