Multicenter Registry in the Japanese Cardiac Sarcoidosis Prognostic (J-CASP) Study: Baseline Characteristics and Validation of the Non-invasive Approach Using 18F-FDG PET.

Background: Recent advances in cardiac modalities contribute to the guidelines on the diagnosis of cardiac sarcoidosis (CS) updated by the Japanese Circulation Society. The multicenter registry, Japanese Cardiac Sarcoidosis Prognostic (J-CASP) study tried to reveal recent trends of diagnosis and outcomes in CS patients and to validate the non-invasive diagnostic approach, including cardiac 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) study. Methods/results: Databases from 12 hospitals consisting of 231 CS patients (mean age, 64 years; female, 65%; LV ejection fraction, 47%) diagnosed by the guidelines with FDG positron emission tomography (PET) study were integrated to compile clinical information on the diagnostic criteria and outcomes. Cardiac 18F-FDG uptake and magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) was positive identically in the histology-proven and clinically-diagnosed groups. The histology-proven group more frequently had reduce LV ejection fraction, myocardial perfusion abnormality and low-grade electrocardiogram (ECG) abnormality (P=0.003 to 0.016) than did the clinical group. During a 45-month period, the histology-proven group more frequently underwent appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) treatment (14% versus 4%, P=0.013) and new electronic device implantation (30% versus 12%, P=0.007) than did clinical group, respectively. There, however, was no difference in all-cause or cardiac mortality or in new hospitalization due to heart failure progression between them. Conclusion: The J-CASP registry demonstrated the rationale and clinical efficacies of non-invasive approach using advanced cardiac imaging modalities in the diagnosis of CS even when histological data were available.