Clinical study on cardiac sarcoidosis.

Forty-one patients with sarcoidosis were investigated for cardiac involvement. The results are summarized as follows: The focal left ventricular perfusion defect was found on the TMPS's of 5 out of 41 patients with sarcoidosis. The defect disappeared in four of these five patients over a 3-year period, but remained in the patient with fatal myocardial sarcoidosis. A decreased left ventricular ejection fraction was found in 14 out of 41 patients with sarcoidosis, and in 3 out of 5 patients with the left ventricular perfusion defect. Echocardiographic examination did not reveal left ventricular wall dysfunction at the site of the left ventricular perfusion defect, except in one patient with fatal myocardial sarcoidosis. Holter ECG's showed such abnormalities as CRBBB, heart blocks, PVC, and PSC in 13 out of 32 patients with sarcoidosis. SACE activity was elevated in all three patients with the left ventricular perfusion defect that were examined, and it could be correlated with changes in the left ventricular perfusion defect in one of them.