Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Department of Medicine

Mount Sinai Sarcoidosis Support Group

Patient/Family Information

What is Sarcoidosis?

The Good News is You have Sarcoidosis! Now What?

What does that mean? What will happen to me?
Can it be cured? What do I do?

ll these thoughts and more run through your mind when you are told that you’ve been diagnosed as having a disease called sarcoidosis. This monograph was written to help you understand some of the answers to these and other questions.

Sarcoidosis is a common disease of unknown cause, which may involve every part of the body. Fortunately, most patients with sarcoidosis have no or only minor complaints. It is a disease that produces inflammation, usually in the form of bumps or discolored areas, which are technically called granulomas. These can occur anywhere in or on your body, including internal organs and externally on your skin. It is seen most frequently in the lungs by x-rays. Patients may have involvement of the skin, liver, lymph glands, spleen, eyes, nervous system, musculoskeletal system (the muscles and bones in the body), heart, brain, and kidneys.

About 80% of Mount Sinai Medical Center’s patients need no treatment, and the illness goes away in six months to two years. Sarcoidosis may not produce any noticeable symptoms. Symptoms usually appear slowly, and they may disappear as mysteriously as they came, with or without treatment.

Sarcoidosis is not cancer or tuberculosis, and it is not contagious. It may cause symptoms that can be unpleasant, but it is not usually disabling. Symptoms can include a nagging cough, shortness of breath, swollen/discolored areas on your skin, fatigue, night sweats, eye problems, low-grade fever, joint pain, or a feeling that something just isn’t right. Or you can have no symptoms at all. Symptoms can last for a while and then disappear. But if they last for more than two years, your sarcoidosis is considered chronic. Regardless of the kinds and/or duration of symptoms, your life will probably be relatively normal.