Supplementum 163 - Swiss Medical Weekly

5S SWISS MED WKLY 2008;138(Suppl 163) · www.smw.ch
Free Communications 2 – SSP / SGP
30
Prevalence and geographic distribution of sarcoidosis in
Switzerland
U. Deubelbeiss1 , A. Gemperli1 , C. Schindler1 , F. Baty2 , M. Brutsche2 .
1 Universität Basel (Basel, CH); 2 Universitätsspital Basel (Basel, CH)
Introduction: The reported prevalence of sarcoidosis varies
considerably in different countries and studies. Typically, it is
estimated at 1–40 per 100’000 inhabitants. The aim of the current
study was to investigate the prevalence and regional distribution of
sarcoidosis in Switzerland. Furthermore, we studied correlations
between the regional prevalence of sarcoidosis and measures of air
quality, regional importance of agriculture, metal or other industries.
Methods: Cases with sarcoidosis were identified from the hospital
statistics (Federal Office for Statistics, Years 2002–2005). The
prevalence resulting from this in-patient data pool was adjusted with
the aid of the incidence of newly diagnosed sarcoidosis from biopsy
results in the City of Basel (in- and out-patients; Pathology, University
Hospital Basel). Regional exposure characteristics included air quality
measurements (MeteoSwiss, PM10, Year 2002), and regional
distribution of different industrial sectors focusing on agriculture and
metal industry (Federal Office for Statistics, NOGA, Year 2005). The
geographic resolution is defined by postal codes (Swiss Post). For the
probability distribution generalized linear models with the Poisson’s
distribution were used. Each exposure co-variable was individually
tested for significance to the number of sarcoidosis cases per region.
All significant co-variables were then collectively scrutinized for
interaction and interdependence with a generalized linear model with
a backward optimization strategy.
Results: We found a mean incidence of sarcoidosis of 7 [CI 95%
5 to 11] and a mean prevalence of 98 [CI 95% 72 to 123] per 100’000
inhabitants. We observed a significant regional heterogeneity, which
was not explained by regional differences in the medical services nor
the density of physicians. The presence of different types of metal
industry and the proportion of grassland agriculture were positively
associated with the regional prevalence of sarcoidosis. Air quality did
not correlate with the number of sarcoidosis cases per region.
Conclusions: The prevalence of sarcoidosis in Switzerland was
approximately 5–10 times higher than assumed based on estimates
from specialized institutions. There were significant regional
differences in Switzerland. We found a higher prevalence in regions
with metal industry, and a high agricultural production, especially
grassland farming.
31
Stem cells derived from rat bone marrow accelerate alveolar
epithelial repair in vitro and reduce bleomycin-induced
pulmonary fibrosis in a lung tissue culture model
A. Gazdhar1 , F. Blank2 , P. Gehr2 , T. Geiser1 .
1 University Hospital Berne (Berne, CH);
2 Institute of Anatomy (Berne, CH)
Abnormal alveolar epithelial wound repair after injury results in the
development of pulmonary fibrosis. Improving alveolar epithelial
repair may therefore result in a reduction of pulmonary fibrosis. We
hypothesized that bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells
(BMSC) in co-culture with alveolar epithelial cells may accelerate
alveolar epithelial wound repair in vitro and reduce bleomycin induced
pulmonary fibrosis in a lung tissue slice culture model. A549 alveolar
epithelial cells were grown to a monolayer on top of a porous
membrane at an air-liquid interface and rat BMSC were grown
attached on the opposite side of the membrane. After wounding of
the confluent alveolar epithelial cell monolayer, the rate of wound
repair was determined. In addition, 200 µm lung tissue slices from
normal and bleomycin injured rat lungs were cultured in presence and
absence of 1x106 rat BMSC. At 24 hrs after wounding, alveolar
epithelial wound closure in vitro was increased in presence of BMSC
compared to medium control (51% wound closure at 24 hours
compared to complete healing with BMSC, p