Symptoms of sarcoidosis
The clinical spectrum is protean, ranging from an abnormal chest radiograph in an asymptomatic individual to severe multiorgan involvement. Multiple large series report that approximately 95% of patients will present with intrathoracic involvement (an abnormal chest radiograph revealing hilar adenopathy, pulmonary infiltrates, or both), 50% have extrathoracic involvement, and only 2% have isolated extrathoracic sarcoidosis.
Despite frequent intrathoracic involvement, less than half of patients present with respiratory symptoms. After pulmonary involvement, the next most common features on presentation are skin rash and ophthalmologic involvement. Notably, there are significant differences in clinical findings, incidence of organ involvement, and mortality between groups on the basis of race and ethnicity, sex, and age. Furthermore, because sarcoidosis is often asymptomatic, the reported prevalence of the disease and organ involvement is likely underestimated.
