Low-dose Dexamethasone in Newly Diagnosed Pulmonary Sarcoidosis

The orphan disease sarcoidosis causes a major reduction in quality of life and loss of work productivity, especially in young adults. Most patients are diagnosed between the age of 20-40 years. In sarcoidosis, multiple organs are affected by inflammation; the cause of the disease is unknown and no curative medication exists. Sarcoidosis invalidates the lives of most patient for many years.

Although curative (pharmaco) therapy is not on hand, immunosuppressive drugs may control the symptoms of the disease. These symptoms are caused by the inflammation in multiple organs, foremost the lungs and the lymphoid system. However, 90% of the sarcoidosis patients receives no immunosuppressive medication at all during the first months after diagnosis, even though the immune system is then highly activated and patients suffer from severe complaints like malaise, fatigue and pain. This wait-and-see policy is common international practice, but scientific grounds and official guidelines are lacking.

This project examines whether low grade suppression of the initial inflammatory process of sarcoidosis by intervention with low-dose dexamethasone therapy achieves significant alleviation of (sub-)acute symptoms, improvement in quality of life, increase in work productivity, and whether this intervention prevents disease progression and reduces total health-care costs.