Pulmonary manifestation of sarcoidosis in early childhood

Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disorder of unknown etiology most commonly affecting young adults. In early childhood patients present with eye or skin involvement or arthritis without pulmonary alterations. We report the case of a 2-year-old boy with a primary pulmonary manifestation of sarcoidosis. At the age of 19 months the boy first presented with fever, anemia, general lymphadenopathy and interstitial reticulonodular infiltrates on his chest X-ray. A cervical lymph node biopsy showed nonspecific follicular hyperplasia. Because of increasing lymphadenopathy and deterioration of his clinical status with feer and persistance of interstitial infiltrates on the chest X-ray, and open lung biopsy was performed, which showed granulomatous inflammation of pleura and lung. Treated with low doses of steroids,the boy's condition improved. Discussion: In small children sarcoidosis occurs less frequently than in adults, and the prognosis seems to be better.