Subcutaneous sarcoidosis with thoracic involvement: A very rare presentation of the disease

• Main Authors: Inès Zendah, Talel Badri, Emna.Ben Salah, Habib Ghedira
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2020-01-01
• Series: Respiratory Medicine Case Reports
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213007119301479

Subcutaneous sarcoidosis is a very rare manifestation of sarcoidosis and its association with parenchymal lung involvement is rarer. We report the twentieth case in the literature published on PubMed. It is the case of a 61-year-old caucasian, non-smoker lady, who presented to a dermatology department with a 7-month history of asthenia, anorexia, weight loss, fever, exertion dyspnea, dry cough, arthralgia of the large joints and non-tender multiple subcutaneous tumefactions. Biopsy of the nodules established the diagnosis of subcutaneous sarcoidosis. Bronchioloalveolar lavage revealed alveolitis with lymphocyte predominance and the CD4/CD8 ratio was 8.5. Chest computed tomography scan revealed peribronchovascular thickening, micronodules of lymphatic distribution and mediastinal lymphadenopathies which were bilateral, asymmetric, and non-compressive. We therefore concluded the involvement of the lung and the mediastinal lymph nodes. The angiotensin-converting enzyme level was high. The patient was successfully treated with prednisone at the dose of 1mg/kg/day.