Cutaneous involvement in sarcoidosis: analysis of the features in 170 patients

Abstract

In our study, we retrospectively evaluated the clinical features of patients diagnosed as sarcoidosis at our center within the last 36 years and who had skin involvement. Cutaneous involvement was observed in 170 patients (32.9%, 136 females, 34 males). The most frequent skin lesion was erythema nodosum (EN) (106 subjects, 20.5%). In addition, skin plaques and subcutaneous nodules were observed in 22 cases (4.3%), maculopapular eruptions in 19 cases (3.7%), scar lesions in 15 cases (2.9%), lupus pernio (LP) in 14 cases (2.7%) and psoriasiform plaques in five cases (0.9%). Among patients with LP (64.3%) and scar lesions (40%), pulmonary parenchymal involvement was more frequent than patients with other skin lesions. Parenchymal involvement present in 10.4% of patients with EN was significantly less than in patients with LP and scar lesions (P values, respectively, <0.001, 0.002). When patients with skin involvement were compared to other sarcoidosis patients, it was seen that the frequency of females among those with skin involvement was significantly higher than the frequency among other sarcoidosis patients (P<0.001). Parenchymal involvement in sarcoidosis patients without skin involvement was less frequent than in patients with LP; however, more frequent than in patients with EN (both P values=0.002). As a conclusion, skin involvement was diagnosed in approximately one-third of our sarcoidosis patients with a generally female predominance. EN was the most frequent skin lesion encountered. Parenchymal involvement was more frequent in patients with LP and scar lesions and less frequent in patients with EN.