Health-Related Quality of Life Assessment in Sarcoidosis

Impairment of QoL is a major indication for the treatment of sarcoidosis. Optimal sarcoidosis care mandates that clinicians monitor HRQoL in their patients. This requires cooperative patient- physician communication. Although HRQoL can be assessed qualitatively, PROs have been developed to assess HRQoL quantitatively. Both sarcoidosis-specific and nonspecific PROs have been used in various clinical trials. These PROs have the potential to monitor HRQoL of individual patients with sarcoidosis in real time outside of the clinic setting, thus allowing the clinician to observe important effects of sarcoidosis therapies without relying on scheduled clinic visits. Sarcoidosis may adversely affect HRQoL through a direct effect from granulomatous inflammation, inflammatory mediators released from sarcoid granulomas, associated medical conditions, associated emotional and psychological conditions, and drug side effects. Because the causes of HRQoL impairment in sarcoidosis are so varied, its treatment must be approached holistically and be individualized. As HRQoL is major concern of patients with sarcoidosis, further attention to this issue holds promise to improve their lives.