Sarcoid pleural effusion: a report of two cases.

Abstract

Two patients with pleural effusions have been seen among 270 patients with sarcoidosis in an eighteen-year period. In both patients pleural effusions were present at the onset of sarcoidosis and associated with extensive pulmonary or extrathoracic involvement. Pleural effusions were exudative with a high lymphocyte count. One patient was successfully treated with corticosteroids and the second died from cardiac complications of the disease.