CASE REPORT   

Giornale Italiano di Dermatologia e Venereologia 2019 June;154(3):352-6

DOI: 10.23736/S0392-0488.17.05171-9

Copyright © 2015 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Cardiac involvement in cutaneous sarcoidosis

Francesco DRAGO ¹, Giulia CICCARESE ¹ ✉, Giuseppe CITTADINI ², Francesca DRAGO ¹, Gian M. ROSA ³, Emanuele COZZANI ¹, Aurora PARODI ¹

¹ Section of Dermatology, Department of Health Sciences, Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy; ² Section of Radiology, Department of Surgery, Morphology, and Integrated Approaches, Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy; ³ Department of Internal Medicine, University of Genoa, Policlinico San Martino, Genoa, Italy

Sarcoidosis is a chronic multisystem disease that usually has a good prognosis but in some cases, especially when cardiac involvement occurs, the outcome is fatal. Cardiac sarcoidosis is insidious to diagnose because it is usually asymptomatic and when clinically apparent, it may have a wide variety of manifestations. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible cardiac involvement in cutaneous sarcoidosis patients. Diagnosis of cutaneous sarcoidosis was confirmed by skin biopsy, laboratory tests and radiological findings in 13 Caucasian patients. To evaluate cardiac damage, electrocardiography, echocardiography, and contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance were performed. Magnetic resonance identified cardiac sarcoidosis only in one of the cutaneous sarcoidosis patients. We suggest investigating cardiac involvement in patients with cutaneous sarcoidosis, albeit asymptomatic, since cardiac lesions are frequently associated with a poorer prognosis.

KEY WORDS: Sarcoidosis; Skin diseases; Cardiac imaging techniques