Tana Claudio, Wegener Susanne, Borys Ewa, Pambuccian Stefan, Tchernev Georgi, Tana Marco, Giamberardino Maria Adele, Silingardi Mauro
a Internal Medicine Unit , Guastalla Hospital, AUSL Reggio Emilia , Reggio Emilia , Italy.
b Department of Neurology , University Hospital Zurich and University of Zurich , Zurich , Switzerland.
Ann Med. 2015;47(7):576-91. doi: 10.3109/07853890.2015.1093164. Epub 2015 Oct 15.
The diagnosis and treatment of neurosarcoidosis can be very challenging for several reasons. It affects clinically 5%-10% of sarcoidosis patients, but can be found in up to 25% of autopsies. These data reveal that a high percentage of asymptomatic or misdiagnosed cases can be missed at an initial diagnostic approach. Clinical and imaging findings are often non-specific since they can be found in a large number of neurological disorders. Histopathology can also be confounding if not performed by an expert pathologist and not placed in an appropriate clinical context. In this review, we discuss clinical features, laboratory findings, imaging, and histology of neurosarcoidosis, and we report current evidence regarding drug therapy. We conclude that a correct diagnostic approach should include a multidisciplinary evaluation involving clinicians, radiologists, and pathologists and that future studies should evaluate the genetic signature of neurosarcoidosis as they could be helpful in the assessment of this uncommon disease. With head-to-head comparisons of medical treatment for neurosarcoidosis still lacking due to the rarity of the disease and an increasing number of immunomodulating therapies at hand, novel therapeutic approaches are to be expected within the next few years.
神经结节病的诊断和治疗颇具挑战性,原因如下。临床上,它影响5%-10%的结节病患者,但在高达25%的尸检中可被发现。这些数据表明,在初始诊断过程中,很大一部分无症状或误诊的病例可能会被漏诊。临床和影像学表现往往缺乏特异性,因为它们也可见于大量其他神经系统疾病。如果不是由专业病理学家进行组织病理学检查,且未结合适当的临床背景,结果也可能产生混淆。在本综述中,我们讨论了神经结节病的临床特征、实验室检查结果、影像学表现和组织学情况,并报告了目前有关药物治疗的证据。我们得出结论,正确的诊断方法应包括临床医生、放射科医生和病理学家的多学科评估,未来的研究应评估神经结节病的基因特征,因为这可能有助于对这种罕见疾病进行评估。由于该疾病罕见,且目前可用的免疫调节疗法越来越多,神经结节病药物治疗的直接比较研究仍然缺乏,预计未来几年会出现新的治疗方法。