Sarcoidosis eMedicine Pediatrics

Description: Although sarcoidosis most commonly involves the lungs, it can affect nearly any organ system, including the lymph nodes,1 eyes, ears,2 skin, liver, spleen, kidneys, bone, joints, nervous system, and heart. Granulomas mediate disease by compressing tissues, secreting cytokines that provoke constitutional symptoms, recruiting inflammatory cells whose products injure local tissues, and elaborating growth factors that cause fibrosis. Sarcoid granulomas either resolve or heal by fibrosis. This fibrotic response can result in severe and often irreversible organ damage and physiological dysfunction.
Avinash Shetty, MD & Abraham Gedalia, MD 2009