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Purpose: We measured corticosteroid medication adherence (CMA) in sarcoidosis patients and analyzed if demographic and clinical factors, beliefs about medications, corticosteroid side-effects, psychosocial status, and the doctor-patient relationship were associated with corticosteroid adherence., Methods: Sarcoidosis patients receiving corticosteroids were eligible to participate. CMA was measured using the Medication Adherence Response Scale-10 (MARS-10), a validated patient reported outcome measure (PRO). Data collection included patient demographics and clinical variables to assess their sarcoidosis phenotype. The patients were administered additional PROs concerning their psychosocial status, beliefs about medication use, corticosteroid side-effects and the strength of their doctor-patient relationship., Results: 132 patients were enrolled. Their mean prednisone dose was 9.9 ± 7.5 mg/day. 75% (99/132) were adherent with corticosteroids (MARS-10 ≥ 6) and 25% (33/132) were nonadherent (MARS-10 < 6). All demographic features, education level, and annual family income were not associated with CMA. Most clinical variables including spirometry, use of additional sarcoidosis drugs, number of organs involved with sarcoidosis were not associated with CMA. Almost all PROs including a better attitude toward medication use, less psychological issues, less corticosteroid side-effects, and a stronger doctor-patient relationship were associated with better CMA. A multi-logistic regression found that patient-doctor communication and the patient's intrinsic beliefs about the use of medications remained associated with CMA., Conclusion: We found no significant relationship between demographic or socioeconomic factors and CMA. Few clinical factors were associated with CMA. In a univariate analysis, CMA was associated with physician-doctor communication, beliefs about medication use, psychological/emotional issues, and corticosteroid side-effects. Only the first two of these factors remained associated with CMA in a multi-logistic analysis. These data suggest that CMA is heavily influenced by sarcoidosis patient beliefs about medications, and less so by patient demographics., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Purpose: We performed a retrospective analysis of a sarcoidosis cohort who had sACE obtained at their initial clinic visit, but the treating physician was blinded to the results. We examined the relationship between sACE and the treating physician's decision to escalate sarcoidosis treatment., Methods: Treatment was considered escalated if the prednisone dose was increased or if the prednisone dose was not changed but an additional anti-sarcoidosis drug was added or the dose was increased., Results: 561 sarcoidosis patients were analyzed. The most common target organ was the lung (84%). Using a cut-off of > 82 units/L for an elevated sACE, 31/82 (38%) with an elevated sACE had treatment escalation whereas 91/497 (18%) had treatment escalation with a normal sACE (p < 0.0001). For the need of treatment escalation, a sACE (cut-off of > 82) had sensitivity 0.25, specificity 0.89, positive predictive value 0.38, negative predictive value 0.81. These results were not appreciably different using other sACE cut-off values such as 70, 80, 90, or 100. A multivariable logistic regression model that included demographics, the target organ, spirometry results estimated that sACE level and lower FVC were significantly associated with the likelihood of treatment escalation. These findings held when sACE > 82 replaced sACE level in the multivariable logistic regression model., Conclusions: Although there was a strong correlation between sACE at the initial sarcoidosis clinic visit and subsequent treatment escalation of sarcoidosis, the predictive power was such that sACE is not adequately reliable to be used in isolation to make this determination., (© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Introduction: The significance of mediastinal lymphadenopathy in bacterial pneumonia is unclear., Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of mediastinal lymph node size determined by chest CT in patients with bacteremic pneumococcal pneumonia. All patients who had positive blood cultures for streptococcus pneumonia over an 11-year period and had a chest CT scan (index CT) within 2 weeks of the positive blood culture were included in the study. Two thoracic radiologists and one pulmonologist independently examined the index CT plus any chest CT scans performed prior (pre-CT) or after (post-CT) the bacteremic episode., Results: The study cohort of 49 patients was 57% male, 65% White, with mean age of 53 (SD = 20) years. Mediastinal lymphadenopathy was detected in 25/49 (51%) of the cases. The mean size of the largest mediastinal lymph node in short axis was 0.99 (SD = 0.71), ranging from 0.0 to 2.05 cm. There was no correlation noted between the number of lobes involved with pneumonia, and the size of the largest mediastinal lymph node (p = 0.33) or the number of pathologically enlarged mediastinal lymph nodes (p = 0.08). There was a statistically significant increase in the mean size of the largest lymph node between the pre-CT and index-CT group (p = 0.02), and decrease between the index-CT group and the post-CT (p = 0.03)., Conclusion: Pneumococcal pneumonia with bacteremia is associated with mild mediastinal lymph node enlargement. The presence of marked mediastinal lymphadenopathy (short axis LN size > 2 cm) should not be assumed from pneumococcal pneumonia.