Fatigue syndrome in sarcoidosis

Abstract

Sarcoidosis is an inflammatory disease of unknown etiology. Most commonly it results in the formation of non-caseating granulomas in intrathoracic lymph nodes and lung parenchyma, but the clinical course and picture may be complicated by extrapulmonary involvement and many non-respiratory signs and symptoms which are directly related to the disease. In addition, sarcoidosis patients may suffer from a plethora of symptoms of uncertain or unknown origin. Fatigue is one of these symptoms, and according to some authors it is reported by the majority of patients with active sarcoidosis, but also by a smaller proportion of patients with inactive sarcoidosis, or even with complete clinical and radiological remission. Therefore the term fatigue syndrome is frequently used to name this clinical problem. The definition of fatigue syndrome in sarcoidosis is imprecise and the syndrome is usually recognized by use of validated questionnaires. In this review the uptodate knowledge in this field was presented and different challenges connected with this syndrome were described.