Quality of life in patients with active sarcoidosis in Greece

The health status of patients with sarcoidosis has rarely been studied, despite the increasing numbers of health-related quality of life publications on other respiratory diseases. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate whether sarcoidosis affects quality of life (QoL), using specifically designed questionnaires for respiratory diseases as well as general health measures, and to compare these with pulmonary function indices. Our secondary aim was to determine whether these measurements are correlated with pulmonary function tests and duration of the disease.

Included in the study were 75 consecutive patients with histologically confirmed active sarcoidosis. Self-completed dyspnea scales (Borg's scale, oxygen cost diagram, modified MRC questionnaire) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaires (St George's Respiratory Questionnaire, Quality of Well-Being, and Anxiety and Depression) were used. Pulmonary function tests, measurements of arterial blood gases at rest and after exercise, chest radiographs, and duration of disease were used for correlation.

We found that QoL was affected in sarcoidosis patients in comparison with healthy controls. Secondly, we found that the duration of the disease was correlated with all three dyspnea scales under evaluation, as well as with the SGRQ questionnaire. Furthermore, a significant correlation was shown between lung function tests (FVC, % pred and FEV(1), % pred) and both the BORG dyspnea scale and the SGRQ questionnaire.

Quality of life is affected in patients with active sarcoidosis. The SGRQ questionnaire could be a useful tool for the investigation of HRQoL in an active sarcoid population with varying degrees of lung function impairment. Future studies are needed to address the ability of these instruments to measure HRQoL in the course of this chronic disease.