Cardiac Screening and Disease Characteristics of Patients with Ocular Sarcoidosis

ABSTRACT

Purpose

This is a retrospective nonrandomized cohort study investigating the prevalence, timing, and type of cardiac sarcoidosis indications on electrocardiogram in patients with diagnosed or suspected ocular sarcoidosis.

Methods

Medical histories of individuals seen from 2005 to 2020 at two centers with diagnosed or suspected ocular sarcoidosis were searched, and statistical methods were used to evaluate the relevance of each aspect obtained.

Results

Approximately 16% of the individuals in our cohort showed signs of cardiac sarcoidosis on ECG, primarily bundle branch blocks, and premature ventricular contractions, close to the time of their initial ocular sarcoidosis documentation. Males exhibited higher rates of clinically significant extra-pulmonary sarcoidosis. No other demographic differences were found.

Conclusions

Our findings highlight the importance for further differentiation of non-infectious sarcoidosis and the utility of electrocardiogram screening. Studies with larger cohorts of ocular sarcoidosis might be needed to elucidate demographic differences within this patient population.

KEYWORDS:

• Cardiac screening
• disparities
• electrocardiogram
• sarcoidosis
• uveitis

Abbreviations

Cardiac sarcoidosis (CS), electrocardiogram (ECG), premature ventricular contractions (PVCs), multiple peripheral choroidal atrophic lesions (MPCAL), interquartile range (IQR), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

Disclaimer

Views expressed in the submitted article represent the views of the authors and not an official position of an organization or donor

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/09273948.2022.2150227

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.