Acute sarcoid arthritis: a favourable outcome? A retrospective survey of 49 patients with review of the literature.

Forty-nine patients, 30 males and 19 females with acute sarcoid arthritis admitted to three different hospitals in Norway were studied retrospectively. All patients had peripheral arthritis and hilar adenopathy, and 87.8% also presented with erythema nodosum (EN). Mean duration of arthritis was 3.7 months (0.5-12 months), but in 26% of the cases, duration of the inflammatory joint disease exceeded three months. Radiological bony erosions were not seen. Two patients had recurrence of acute sarcoid arthritis, 14 months and 10 years after the initial episode, respectively. Two other patients developed chronic myalgia and fibromyalgia. Four patients, one female and three males, developed chronic pulmonal sarcoidosis. Of these, two patients had simultaneous onset of acute sarcoid arthritis and parenchymal disease while two patients developed chronic lung disease three months after onset of acute sarcoid arthritis. We thus tentatively suggest that although acute sarcoid arthritis is usually a self-limiting joint disease, recurrences may occasionally occur and some cases develop chronic sarcoidosis of the lungs.