Author: Meg M Mangin (---.vnnyca.adelphia.net)
Date: 07-10-03 01:58
Antibiotics Do Help Chronic Sarcoidosis Patients
Author: Meg M. Mangin, RN
Author's email: tmmangin@charter.net
Date Published: 28 February 2003
Article Type: Letter
Comment Upon: Brown ST, Brett I, Almenoff PL, Lesser M, Terrin M, Teirstein AS: Recovery of Cell Wall-Deficient Organisms From Blood Does Not Distinguish Between Patients With Sarcoidosis and Control Subjects. Chest 2003; 123: 413-417 [PubMed Abstract]
After reading Brown et al, [1], I am quite puzzled as to the study's objectives. Was it the intent to discredit the bacterial etiology of sarcoidosis and discourage further investigation of treatments based on this pathogenesis?
Numerous studies have demonstrated that CWD bacteria act as an antigen in genetically predisposed individuals. And that their immune system forms granulomatous inflammatory tissue in which CWD bacteria have been found. How then does a study examining blood explore this relationship or dispute the bacterial pathogenesis theory?
This report concludes that since there is little difference between CWDF mycobacteria found in the blood of sarcoidosis patients and that of normals, bacteria cannot be the etiology of sarcoidosis. Because this supposition does not take into account the biochemistry of sarcoidosis, I respectfully question the relevance of this inference.
I have knowledge of numerous, chronic sarcoidosis patients who are currently receiving specialized antibiotic treatment and experiencing resolution of symptoms involving multiple body organs which cannot be explained by spontaneous remission . Many of these patients have been debilitated not only by the disease but by previous toxic, yet standard, sarcoidosis medications.
It is my hope that future studies will properly explore the inflammatory pathways involved in sarcoidosis, the medications that interrupt those pathways (such as angiotensin receptor blockers) and the antibiotics (which eliminate the known bacterial antigens in order to effect a cure). Surely research time, energies and monies directed at these aims would
provide more benefits to science, and ultimately those who are suffering, and make it possible for even more sarcoidosis patients to be prescribed the much-needed CWD antibiotics.
1. Brown ST, Brett I, Almenoff PL, Lesser M, Terrin M, Teirstein AS: Recovery of Cell Wall-Deficient Organisms From Blood Does Not Distinguish Between Patients With Sarcoidosis and Control Subjects. Chest 2003; 123: 413-417 [PubMed Abstract]
FOOTNOTES
No agency funded this research
Competing Interests: None Declared
KEYWORDS
Sarcoidosis
acid-fast bacteria
cell-wall-deficient bacteria
lupus erythematosus, cutaneous
MeSH CLASSIFICATIONS
Sarcoidosis
Atypical Bacterial Forms
Transformation, Bacterial
Lupus Erythematosus, Cutaneous
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