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Sarcoidosis | Method for Assessing Clinical Severity

Purpose: To evaluate the clinical severity of sarcoidosis using the method of Judson et al.

Description

Judson proposed a method for assessing the clinical severity of sarcoidosis based on the resultant disability. This can help triage the patient initially and to monitor the response to therapy over time. The author is from the Medical University of South Carolina.


 

Parameters:

(1) physical and/or psychosocial limitations

(2) decline in normal capacity

 

Both parameters can be measured with a 10 cm visual analogue scale (VAS), scaled from none to worse imaginable (extreme). The cutoffs are based on Figure 1, with moderate limitation at the 50% point and extreme at 100%. The axis for decline in normal capacity appears truncated at the top.

Physical and Psycho-social Limitations

Decline in Normal Capacity

Quadrant

<= 4.4 (out of 10)

<= 4.4 (out of 10)

I

<= 4.4 (out of 10)

> 4.4 (out of 10)

II

> 4.4 (out of 10)

<= 4.4 (out of 10)

III

> 4.4 (out of 10)

> 4.4 (out of 10)

IV

 

Interpretation:

• The higher the quadrant the more severe the sarcoidosis.

• The order of the quadrants is based on physical and psychological limitations being more important to a patient than decline in normal capacity.

 

Limitations:

• The limitations and decline in normal capacity are not necessarily independent and may interact.

• It might be more appropriate to have 9 levels. Severe to extreme limitations have a greater impact than moderate to severe.

 


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Specialty

Objective

ICD-10