[Prognosis and its related factors of pulmonary sarcoidosis].

The prognosis of pulmonary sarcoidosis depends on the persistence of activity over time and on the degree of functional failure of the involved organs. Some discrepancies of the reported outcome can be ascribed to fundamental differences in the type of disease, or ethnic differences. The purpose of the present paper is to review data of the prognosis of pulmonary sarcoidosis in Japan and to identify the factors predicting the final outcome at diagnosis. Among 277 patients with pulmonary sarcoidosis, followed at Kyushu University Hospital during a 32-year period from 1956, 115 patients (36 men and 79 women) were studied cross-sectionally, to analyse the prognostic factors, retrospectively. Ocular sarcoid involvement and the association of chronic tonsillitis are important prognostic factors for predicting the evolution and outcome of pulmonary sarcoidosis.