[Statement of the bioptic diagnostic in intrathoracic sarcoidosis--team work of 6 lung hospitals of the GDR (author's transl)]

Abstract

A nearly nation-wide team-work of six chest hospitals was made with 4284 patients to analyse all performed diagnostic procedures up to the present. Its frequency and diagnostic importance in relation to the radiographic stages of the disease were examined. Especially the procedure of bronchologic examination, having been partly underrated with the morphological ascertainment of sarcoidosis, are now purposefully analysed. This showed that also with perbronchic punction-biopsy and bronchoscopic excision morphologically confirming of the diagnosis was possible at a high percentage. On the other side the right diagnosis was made clinically before bioptic procedures in the majority of the patients. The overall conclusion is that, according to the experiences made in our hospitals, the relatively harmless bronchologic procedures are in general sufficient to obtain bioptic verfication of the diagnosis "sarcoidosis". Other bioptic operations like mediastinoscopy or lung biopsy can be restricted to cases with reasonable doube of the diagnosis.