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Medical Author:

William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

William C. Shiel Jr., MD, FACP, FACR

Dr. Shiel received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors from the University of Notre Dame. There he was involved in research in radiation biology and received the Huisking Scholarship. After graduating from St. Louis University School of Medicine, he completed his Internal Medicine residency and Rheumatology fellowship at the University of California, Irvine. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Rheumatology.

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In this Article

• What is sarcoidosis?
• What are symptoms of sarcoidosis?
• Who gets sarcoidosis?
• What we know about sarcoidosis
• Some things we don't know about sarcoidosis
• How is sarcoidosis diagnosed?
• What are some signs and symptoms that suggest possible sarcoidosis?
• What do laboratory tests show?
• How is sarcoidosis treated?
• Living with sarcoidosis
• Where can a person find more information on sarcoidosis?
• Sarcoidosis At A Glance
• Patient Comments: Sarcoidosis - Describe Your Experience
• Patient Comments: Sarcoidosis - Symptoms
• Patient Comments: Sarcoidosis - Treatment
• Sarcoidosis Index

Much about sarcoidosis remains unknown. Nevertheless, if you have the disease, you can be reassured about several things. Sarcoidosis is usually not crippling. It often goes away by itself, with most cases healing in 24 to 36 months. Even when sarcoidosis lasts longer, most patients can go about their lives as usual. Sarcoidosis is not a cancer. It is not contagious, and your friends and family will not catch it from you. Although it can occur in families, there is no evidence that sarcoidosis is passed from parents to children.

Sarcoidosis is currently thought to be associated with an abnormal immune response. It is not known whether the trigger that initiates the immune disturbance is a foreign substance, chemical, drug, virus, or some other substance.

In general, sarcoidosis appears briefly and heals naturally in 60%-70% of the cases, often without the patient knowing or doing anything about it. From 20%-30% of sarcoidosis patients are left with some permanent lung damage. In 10%-15% of the patients, sarcoidosis can become chronic.

When either the granulomas or fibrosis seriously affect the function of a vital organ—the lungs, heart, nervous system, liver, or kidneys, for example—sarcoidosis can be fatal. This occurs 5%-10% of the time. Some people are more at risk than others; no one knows why.

No one can predict how sarcoidosis will progress in an individual patient. The patient's symptoms, race, and the doctor's findings can give some clues. For example, a sudden onset of general symptoms such as weight loss of feeling poorly are usually taken to mean that the course of sarcoidosis will be relatively short and mild. Dyspnea and possibly skin sarcoidosis often indicate that the sarcoidosis will be more chronic and severe.

White patients are more likely to develop the milder form of the disease. Black people tend to develop the more chronic and severe form.

Sarcoidosis rarely develops before the age of 10 or after the age of 60. However, the illness—with or without symptoms—has been reported in younger as well as in older people. When symptoms do appear in these age groups, the symptoms are those that are more general in nature, for example, tiredness, sluggishness, coughing, and a general feeling of ill health.