Sarcoidosis can also affect the heart. Some patients have symptoms such as palpitations, dizziness, near-fainting, or chest pain, while standard cardiac tests such as PET scans and cardiac MRI show no abnormalities.
Researchers from the ILD Center of Excellence at St. Antonius Hospital investigated the value of a specialized heart scan known as the MIBG scan. This scan visualizes the function of the nerves regulating the heart and may help detect cardiac autonomic dysfunction — a disturbance of the autonomic nervous system of the heart.
In this study, nearly half of the sarcoidosis patients with unexplained cardiac symptoms showed abnormalities on the MIBG scan despite normal PET and MRI findings. Many of the patients who were subsequently treated with carvedilol reported an improvement in symptoms.
These findings suggest that MIBG scintigraphy may provide valuable additional information in sarcoidosis patients with unexplained cardiac symptoms and may help identify hidden autonomic dysfunction of the heart. Larger prospective studies are needed to further confirm these findings.
Reference
Raasing LRM, Drent M, Keijsers RGM, van den Hoven AF, Post MC, Grutters JC, Veltkamp M. [123I]-Meta-Iodobenzylguanidine scintigraphy in sarcoidosis: exploring cardiac autonomic dysfunction in patients with unexplained cardiac symptoms. Diagnostics (Basel). 2025 Sep 11;15(18):2306. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics15182306. Link met artikel.