The diagnosis of sarcoidosis.
The diagnosis of sarcoidosis can never be assured: sarcoidosis is a diagnosis of exclusion and this cannot be accomplished with complete confidence. The diagnosis requires clinicoradiographic findings compatible with the diagnosis, histologic confirmation of granulomatous inflammation, exclusion of known causes of granulomatous disease, and evidence of disease in at least two organs. The end result of this diagnostic evaluation for sarcoidosis is neither a definitive diagnosis nor an exclusion of the diagnosis, but rather a statistical likelihood of the disease.
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, CSB-812, Medical University of South Carolina, 96 Jonathan Lucas Street, Charleston, SC 29466, USA. judsonma@musc.edu
Marc A
MA
Judson
D001706:Biopsy / Q000379:methods*; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012507:Sarcoidosis / Q000175:diagnosis*