Research findings

Delphi Consensus on sarcoidosis phenotypes, based on the CT scan results, published for the first time in the world’s most cited journal on respiratory medicine “THE LANCET. Respiratory Medicine”.

“The publication of this consensus reflects an updated understanding of sarcoidosis and introduction to the mandatory practice of computer tomography. The next step will be to change the classification. This will optimize the treatment of patients, will reduce the proportion of patients receiving hormonal and immunosuppressive therapy, will prevent the development of irreversible changes,” Chair of the Phthisiopulmonology Departmentof Kazan State Medical University, Professor Alexander Vizel, who was involved in the research, pointed out.

The Delphi Consensus was initiated by the World Association for Sarcoidosis and Other Granulomatous Disorders (WASOG) for over two years. The team of scientists of Tatarstan has been working on the problem of granulomatosis since 1996 (199 publications in Russian and 26 in English). Previously, the classification of sarcoidosis by stage was based on conventional X-rays.

In 2023, a scientific group led by Alexander Vizel, on a specialized commission of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, was instructed to create a federal register on sarcoidosis. Work on the register was started in Tatarstan in 2012, along with the academic staff of the Phthisiopulmonology Departmentof Kazan State Medical University (A. Vizel, I. Vizel, R. Shaymuratov), practical doctors of the Republican Clinical Hospital of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan – G. Shakirova and E. Dyakova and City Clinical Hospital No.16 – Е. Kudryavtseva, actively participated in it.

In 2012, the joint team of the Kazan State Medical University, the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Interregional Clinical Diagnostic Center, the Republican Clinical Hospital, the Republican Clinical Oncology Dispensary, was awarded the State Prize of the Republic of Tatarstan for the work on sarcoidosis. Since 2000, the federal model for the management of patients with sarcoidosis has been tested in Tatarstan, where A. Farrakhov, A. Sozinov, R. Guslyakova, R. Tuishev, N. Amirov, V. Potanin, I. Safin was participated; this has led to the worldwide recognition of our work. For the first time in Russia, the complete international protocol for diagnosis of sarcoidosis was implemented within 6 years in the Interregional Clinical Diagnostic Center. In 2013, with the participation of Professor A. Vizel, an international agreement on the use of methotrexate for sarcoidosis was developed, and in 2021 the results of the first international study on the demographic epidemiology of sarcoidosis saw the light of day (Respiratory Medicine). In both research he represented Russia and Tatarstan.

In 2019 WASOG in agreement with the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Tatarstan proposed to hold an International Conference on Sarcoidosis in Kazan, however, the COVID-19 pandemic intervened. In 2021 Professor Alexander Vizel and WASOG President held a Russian Sarcoidosis Day at the European Respiratory Society International Congress.

Currently a pilot project for a register on sarcoidosis, completed practical evaluation in Tatarstan, has received a positive assessment of academician S. Avdeev, Director of the National Medical Research Center for Pulmonology in Moscow, and the analysis of more than 3,000 cases of this relatively rare disease has been prepared for publication in an international citation journal.