Indication and duration of the prednisolone therapy of chronic pulmonary sarcoidosis--a prognostic-therapeutic screening as a result of a controlled trial.

Report on a controlled therapeutic trial with prednisolone of chronic pulmonary sarcoidosis. The patients comprised three groups differing from the dose of prednisolone and the duration of the treatment. 194 clinically and histologically proven cases were completely treated. Two years after ending the treatment the relapse rates were about 20 to 30% in each group. This corresponds well with the rate of spontaneous regression. These results are an indicator that in most cases the underlying pathogenic process of immune deficiency is calming down during treatment and this leads to a possible change in therapeutic indication:--treating all patients for only one year, --taking into account that a relapse will occur in about one third of all cases,--avoiding supertreatment of the other two thirds with a not harmless and costly drug.