Sarcoidosis; clinical observation on one hundred sixty cases.

Abstract

Sarcoidosis can no longer be regarded as a rare disease. A recent investigation disclosed 1194 cases of this disease in Veterans' Administration Hospitals in a five-year interval, 1 and chest x-ray surveys of 1,000,000 inhabitants of Sweden between 1950 and 1954 detected almost half as many cases of sarcoidosis as of tuberculosis. 2 Whether these impressive numbers of cases are merely the result of better recognition or whether sarcoidosis is actually increasing in prevalence remains to be determined. In either event, because of its growing importance, sarcoidosis is a disease with which all physicians should be familiar. Reported here are observations in 160 patients who came under our observation between 1938 and 1956, in clinic, hospital, or office practice. All cases included in this series had one or more biopsies demonstrating epithelioid tubercles. The age and sex distribution of these patients, shown in Table 1, is typical of that observed