Background: As the clinical features of sarcoidosis vary among patients from different ethnic groups and geographic areas, local reports are of great interest.
Patients and methods: The files of 120 patients (72 females, 48 males), 65% of Jewish and 35% of Arab origin, with a mean age at diagnosis of 49.7 +/- 11.1 years, with biopsy-proven sarcoidosis, and residents of northern Israel were evaluated and disease parameters recorded.
Results: The mean annual incidence between 1980-1996 was 0.8/100,000. Most patients presented with pulmonary symptoms of at least one month's duration. Thoracic and extra-thoracic involvement was found in 90% and 47% of patients, respectively. Radiographic stage 0,1,2,3,4 disease was found in 9.2, 31.7, 18.3, 37.5 and 3.3% of the patients respectively. Sixty-two patients received medical therapy, mostly for pulmonary involvement. The majority of patients recovered without sequelae. Six patients died from sarcoidosis during the follow-up period (cardiac: 2, pulmonary: 4), providing a 5% mortality rate.
Conclusions: Sarcoidosis in northern Israel is a fairly uncommon condition that occurs mainly in older patients with female predominance. Patients in this area have a higher incidence of clinically significant pulmonary involvement necessitating medical therapy as compared to other parts of the world.