title: Sarcoidosis misdiagnosed as malignant tumors: a case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Sarcoidosis is a rare condition that is often misdiagnosed as malignant tumors due to the similar clinical manifestations and imaging findings.
  
  
  METHODS
  We encountered a 56-year-old Chinese woman who had a chief complaint of a persistent cough. The chest computer tomography (CT) revealed mediastinal and bilateral hilar lymph node enlargement, and positron emission tomography-computer tomography (PET-CT) revealed abnormal fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake in the lymph nodes of the chest and abdomen. To further clarify the diagnosis, a lymph node sampling was performed by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS) and the histopathologic diagnosis of sarcoidosis was confirmed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  VATS could be an effective and minimally invasive diagnostic method to discriminate pulmonary sarcoidosis with other malignant tumors.
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China.|Department of Thoracic Surgery, North China University of Science and Technology Affiliated Hospital, Tangshan, 063000, China.
authors.forename: Zuosheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China.
authors.forename: Zuoqing
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China.
authors.forename: Jinghao
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China.
authors.forename: Dian
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China. xusong198@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Song
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Lung Cancer Surgery, Lung Cancer Institute, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, No. 154 Anshan Road, Heping District, Tianjin, 300052, China. huntercj2004@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008875:Middle Aged; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D017565:Sarcoidosis, Pulmonary / Q000175:diagnosis*; D020775:Thoracic Surgery, Video-Assisted; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019275:Radiopharmaceuticals; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18