No one can predict how sarcoidosis will progress in an individual patient. But the symptoms the patient experiences, the doctors findings, and the patients race can give some clues. For example, a sudden onset of general symptoms such as weight loss or feeling poorly are usually taken to mean that the course of sarcoidosis will be relatively short and mild. Dyspnea often indicate that the course of 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. Symptoms that appear in these age groups are tiredness, sluggishness, coughing, and a general feeling of ill health. In addition to the lungs and lymph nodes, the body organs more likely to be affected by sarcoidosis are the liver, skin, heart, nervous system, and kidneys, in that order of frequency. Patients can have symptoms related to the specific organ affected, they can have only general symptoms, or they can be without any symptoms whatsoever.