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Sarcoidosis and tuberculosis: Variable immunologically determined reactions to a common cause?

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Summary

HAVING reviewed the records of 208 consecutive cases of sarcoidosis diagnosed in one hospital over a period of 20 years we describe the clinical course of 18 patients (9%) from whom mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tub.) was cultured. These figures implicate the tubercle bacillus in either a primary etiological or secondary complicating role in at least some cases of sarcoidosis. We favor the former hypothesis and outline a possible mechanism involving interaction between the humoral and cellular immune systems to explain the coexistence of the two diseases, i.e., a changing reaction to an antigen common to both: the tubercle bacillus.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pathology, University College Dublin and Peamount Hospital, Co. Dublin

    C. M. Burke & T. M. Healy

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  1. C. M. Burke
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  2. T. M. Healy
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Burke, C.M., Healy, T.M. Sarcoidosis and tuberculosis: Variable immunologically determined reactions to a common cause?. I.J.M.S. 157, 39–44 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02953683

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