Imaging Methods for Pulmonary Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is achronic systemic granulomatous disease of unknown etiology. In more than 90% of patients with diagnosed sarcoidosis, mediastinal and hilar lymph nodes are affected. The objective of this paper is to discuss the most important chest imaging methods in pulmonary sarcoidosis. Achest X-ray remains the method of choice at both the diagnostic stage and during follow-up of the disease progress. High-resolution computed tomography allows for amore thorough description of lesions in terms of their location. Research demonstrates the superiority of FDG PET over both aforementioned techniques in the assessment of active inflammatory lesions. Magnetic resonance imaging is currently being used in diagnosing cardiac sarcoidosis. Although EBUS constitutes the basic diagnostic tool, the invasiveness of the method results in it not being used when monitoring the activity of the disease.