PLEURAL EFFUSION IN SARCOIDOSIS - A CASE-REPORT

Pleural effusion is a well-recognized clinical entity that can be asso ciated with sarcoidosis. Nevertheless, the real prevalence of this phe nomenon remains to be established. This study describes the case of a 57-year-old male sarcoid patient who presented with right exudative pl eural effusion, dyspnea on exertion, and bilateral pulmonary interstit ial infiltrates. Sarcoidosis was diagnosed more than 2 years prior to the onset of pleural involvement. Pleural biopsy revealed the presence of typical sarcoid non caseating granulomas. Sarcoid involvement of t he pleura resolved following a 1-month course of high doses of steroid s and did not recur during a 18-month follow up. When we retrospective ly analyzed clinical data obtained from 624 consecutive sarcoid patien ts who were referred to our hospital between January 1980 and June 199 3 and examined for the presence of pleural involvement, the only patie nt who showed pleural effusion and histologically proven sarcoidosis o f the pleura was the case here described. The frequency of the phenome non in our series is 0.16%. We conclude that pleural effusion represen ts a rare event in sarcoidosis.