Serum ACE Level in Sarcoidosis Patients with Typical and Atypical HRCT Manifestation

BACKGROUND Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease that affects multiple organs. Before widespread use of computed tomography (CT), the severity of sarcoidosis was assessed based on chest X-ray abnormalities. HRCT can distinguish between active inflammatory changes and irreversible fibrosis. In this study, we analyzed different ACE levels in 148 patients diagnosed with sarcoidosis. MATERIAL/METHODS We categorized these patients based on their HRCT results into four groups: 1) patients diagnosed with chronic disease; 2) patients diagnosed with non-chronic disease; 3) patients who exhibited typical HRCT changes; and 4) patients who exhibited atypical HRCT changes. Afterward the mean ACE level of each group was calculated and compared. RESULT The HRCT scans of chronic sarcoidosis patients tended to show more atypical sarcoidosis patterns. Moreover, there was a reverse correlation between chronicity and ACE level (P-value <0.05). CONCLUSIONS HRCT is another modality which would be useful when the diagnosis of sarcoidosis is not definite.