RESUMO
To review the pulmonary CT findings in sarcoidosis at diagnosis, and to analyze the change in each finding at follow-up in cases without corticosteroid treatment. The study included 21 cases of pulmonary involvement of sarcoidosis. We analyzed the presence or absence and grade of each HRCT finding: bronchial wall thickening, enlargement of vascular shadows, pleural involvement, septal thickening, small nodules, ground-glass opacities, centrilobular opacities, consolidation, nodules, and volume loss. Afterwards, we compared the initial CT with the follow-up CT, and described the change of each finding as "improved" or "not improved". Furthermore, we decided if each case as a whole was improved or not after considering all of the pulmonary CT findings. Twelve of the 21 cases were improved. Small nodules, ground-glass opacities, centrilobular opacities, and nodules had improved in more than 50% of the cases since the initial CT. However, pleural involvement (10/11) and volume loss (6/9) were not improved. Pleural involvement and volume loss correlated the radiological irreversibility (p < 0.05). Of the several pulmonary CT findings in sarcoidosis, pleural involvement and volume loss show the highest rates of irreversible pulmonary changes.
