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Persistent High Alveolar Lymphocytosis as a Predictive Criterion of Chronic Pulmonary Sarcoidosis a
Author(s) -
ISRAELBIET DOMINIQUE,
VENET ALAIN,
CHRÉTIEN JACQUES
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1986.tb18516.x
Subject(s) - lymphocytosis , sarcoidosis , medicine , stage (stratigraphy) , disease , population , pathology , biology , paleontology , environmental health
A homogeneous population of 73 sarcoidosis patients with recent onset sarcoidosis, no smoking habits, and no previous treatments was serially evaluated in a study of the spontaneous evolution of sarcoidosis. This evaluation comprised clinical, radiographic, biological, and functional assessments as well as assessments of fluids recovered by BAL. We determined the natural history of alveolar lymphocytosis in early stage sarcoidosis and the predictive value of such lymphocytosis for the outcome of the disease. We focused on the outcome at 2 years because it is the usual time of spontaneous recovery; after 2 years the disease enters the chronic phase, and more complications are likely to occur. We found that the initial lymphocytosis observed during the very early stages of the disease had no predictive value for the outcome. Conversely, the persistence of a high alveolar lymphocytosis within the first year of evolution is strongly correlated to a nonrecovery at 2 years, and thus to a chronic phase of sarcoidosis.