Patients suffering from pulmonary sarcoidosis may have a dry cough, shortness of breath and chest pain. There also can be fatigue, weakness and weight loss. For those cases where the disease appears outside the lungs, symptoms can include fever, painful joints, scaly rashes, and bloodshot eyes. The diagnosis of sarcoidosis is based on the patient's medical history, physical examination, laboratory tests, lung function studies, and chest x-ray. The diagnosis is confirmed by eliminating other diseases having similar symptoms and performing a biopsy on any of the affected organs.
Many patients recover completely without treatment.
When therapy is recommended, drugs called corticosteroids are used to reduce the inflammation. The link between sarcoidosis and work has not been established. Some studies show that residents of rural areas have an increased risk of developing sarcoidosis. Some researchers propose that environmental factors may be associated with the disease but no studies to date support this hypothesis. One study also noted that people living close to granite rocks with high beryllium content had a high incidence of sarcoidosis.