what is the auto-immune disease sarcoadosis (sp??)?

Question

dont know much about it

Answer 1

What Is Sarcoidosis?

Sarcoidosis (sar"koi-do'sis) involves inflammation that produces tiny lumps of cells in various organs in your body. The lumps are called granulomas (gran"u-lo'mahs) because they look like grains of sugar or sand. They are very small and can be seen only with a microscope.

These tiny granulomas can grow and clump together, making many large and small groups of lumps. If many granulomas form in an organ, they can affect how the organ works. This can cause symptoms of sarcoidosis.

Sarcoidosis can occur in almost any part of your body, although it usually affects some organs more than others. The lungs or the skin.; eyes, liver, spleen,brain, nerves, heart or tear glands.;salivary glands and bones and joints. It always occur in more than one organ at a time.

Sarcoidosis has an active and a nonactive phase:

In the active phase, the granulomas form and grow. In this phase, symptoms can develop, and scar tissue can form in the organs where the granulomas occur.
In the nonactive phase, the inflammation goes down, and the granulomas stay the same size or shrink. But the scars may remain and cause symptoms.
The course of the disease varies greatly among people.

In many people, sarcoidosis is mild. The inflammation that causes the granulomas may get better on its own. The granulomas may stop growing or shrink. Symptoms may go away within a few years.
In some people, the inflammation remains but doesn't get worse. You may also have symptoms or flare-ups and need treatment every now and then.
In other people, sarcoidosis slowly gets worse over the years and can cause permanent organ damage. Although treatment can help, sarcoidosis may leave scar tissue in the lungs, skin, eyes, or other organs. The scar tissue can affect how the organs work. Treatment usually does not affect scar tissue.
Changes in sarcoidosis usually occur slowly (e.g., over months). Sarcoidosis does not usually cause sudden illness. However, some symptoms may occur suddenly. They include:

Disturbed heart rhythms
Arthritis in the ankles
Eye symptoms.
In some serious cases in which vital organs are affected, sarcoidosis can result in death.

Sarcoidosis is not a form of cancer.

There is no known way to prevent sarcoidosis.


What Causes Sarcoidosis?

The cause of sarcoidosis is not known. And, there may be more than one thing that causes it.

Scientists think that sarcoidosis develops when your immune system responds to something in the environment (e.g., bacteria, viruses, dust, chemicals) or perhaps to your own body tissue (autoimmunity).

Normally, your immune system defends your body against things that it sees as foreign and harmful. It does this by sending special cells to the organs that are being affected by these things. These cells release chemicals that produce inflammation around the foreign substance or substances to isolate and destroy them.

In sarcoidosis, this inflammation remains and leads to the development of granulomas or lumps.

Scientists have not yet identified the specific substance or substances that trigger the immune system response in the first place. They also think that sarcoidosis develops only if you have inherited a certain combination of genes.

You can't catch sarcoidosis from someone who has it.

Sarcoidosis affects people of all ages and races worldwide.

It occurs mostly in:

Adults between the ages of 20 and 40
African Americans (especially women)
People of Asian, German, Irish, Puerto Rican, and Scandinavian origin.
In the United States, sarcoidosis affects African Americans somewhat more often and more severely than Caucasians.


People who are more likely to get sarcoidosis include:

Health care workers
Nonsmokers
Elementary and secondary school teachers
People exposed to agricultural dust, insecticides, pesticides, or mold
Firefighters.
Brothers and sisters, parents, and children of people who have sarcoidosis are more likely than others to have sarcoidosis.


What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Sarcoidosis?

Many people who have sarcoidosis have no symptoms. Often, the condition is discovered by accident only because a person has a chest x ray for another reason, such as a pre-employment x ray.

Some people have very few symptoms, but others have many.

Symptoms usually depend on which organs the disease affects. As the lung and skin are the predominant organs affected. We'll concentrate on the lung symptoms; .Shortness of breath, a dry cough that doesn't bring up mucus.and wheezing.
Enlarged and sometimes tender lymph nodes—most often those in your neck and chest but sometimes those under your chin, in your arm pits, or in your groin.
Skin Symptoms

Various types of bumps, ulcers, or, rarely, flat areas of discolored skin, that appear mostly near your nose, eyes, back, arms, legs, and scalp. They usually itch but aren't painful. They usually last a long time.
Painful bumps that usually appear on your ankles and shins and can be warm, tender, red or purple-to-red in color, and slightly raised. This is called erythema nodosum (er"i-the'mah nodo'sum). You may have fever and swollen ankles and joint pain along with the bumps. The bumps often are an early sign of sarcoidosis, but they occur in other diseases too. The bumps usually go away in weeks to months, even without treatment.
Disfiguring skin sores that may affect your nose, nasal passages, cheeks, ears, eyelids, and fingers. This is called lupus pernio (loo'pus per'nio). The sores tend to be ongoing and can return after treatment is over.


Sarcoidosis may also cause more general symptoms, including:

Uneasiness, feeling sick (malaise), an overall feeling of ill health
Tiredness, fatigue, weakness
Loss of appetite or weight
Fever
Night sweats
Sleep problems
These general symptoms are often caused by other conditions. If you have these general symptoms but don't have symptoms from affected organs, you probably do not have sarcoidosis.

How Is Sarcoidosis Diagnosed?

Your doctor will find out if you have sarcoidosis by taking a detailed medical history and conducting a physical exam and several diagnostic tests. The purpose is to:

Identify the presence of granulomas in any of your organs
Rule out other causes of your symptoms
Determine the amount of damage to any of your affected organs
Determine whether you need treatment.
Medical History

Your doctor may also ask whether you have ever been exposed to inhaled beryllium metal, which is used in aircraft and weapons manufacture, or organic dust from birds or hay. These things can produce granulomas in your lungs that look like the granulomas that are caused by sarcoidosis but are actually signs of other conditions.

Physical Exam

Your doctor will look for symptoms of sarcoidosis, such as red bumps on your skin; swollen lymph nodes; an enlarged liver, spleen, or salivary gland(s); or redness in your eyes. He or she will also listen for abnormal lung sounds or heart rhythm. Your doctor also will check for other likely causes of your symptoms.


Chest X Ray. A chest x ray takes a picture of your heart and lungs. It may show granulomas or enlarged lymph nodes in your chest. About 95 out of every 100 people who have sarcoidosis have an abnormal chest x ray.

Doctors usually use a staging system for chest x rays taken to detect sarcoidosis:
Stage 0: Normal chest x ray
Stage 1: Chest x ray showing enlarged lymph nodes but otherwise clear lungs
Stage 2: Chest x ray showing enlarged lymph nodes and shadows in your lungs
Stage 3: Chest x ray showing shadows in your lungs, but the lymph nodes are not enlarged
Stage 4: Chest x ray showing scars in the lung tissue.

In general, the higher the stage of the x ray, the worse your symptoms and lung function are. But there are a lot of differences among people. If your x-ray results show Stages 0, 1, 2, or 3, you may not have symptoms or need treatment, and you may get better and have normal chest x rays again over time.


Blood Tests. These tests can show the number and type of cells in your blood. They also will show whether there are increases in your calcium levels or changes in your liver, kidney, and bone marrow that can occur with sarcoidosis.


Arterial Blood Gas Test. This test is more accurate than pulse oximetry for checking the level of oxygen in your bloodstream. Blood is taken from an artery (usually in your wrist). It is then analyzed for its oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.



The Cat Scan provides a computer-generated image of your organs that has more detail than a regular chest x ray. It can provide more information about how sarcoidosis has affected your organs.

How Is Sarcoidosis Treated?

The goals of treatment are to:

Improve how the organs affected by sarcoidosis work
Relieve symptoms
Shrink the granulomas.
Treatment may shrink the granulomas and even cause them to disappear, but this may take many months. If scars have formed, treatment may not help, and you may have ongoing symptoms.

Your treatment depends on:

What symptoms you have
How severe your symptoms are
Whether any of your vital organs (e.g., your lungs, eyes, heart, or brain) are affected
How the organ is affected.
Some organs must be treated, regardless of your symptoms. Others may not need to be treated. Usually, if you don't have symptoms, you don't need treatment, and you probably will recover in time.

Drugs

The main treatment for sarcoidosis is prednisone. Prednisone is a corticosteroid, or anti-inflammatory drug. Sometimes it is used with other drugs. Sometimes other corticosteroids are used.

Prednisone almost always relieves symptoms of inflammation. Prednisone is usually given for many months, sometimes for a year or more.
: Your treatment depends on:

What symptoms you have
How severe your symptoms are
Whether any of your vital organs (e.g., your lungs, eyes, heart, or brain) are affected
How the organ is affected.
Some organs must be treated, regardless of your symptoms. Others may not need to be treated. Usually, if you don't have symptoms, you don't need treatment, and you probably will recover in time.
corticosteroids are used.

Prednisone almost always relieves symptoms of inflammation. If a symptom doesn't improve with prednisone treatment within a couple of months, consult your physician.

Prednisone is usually given for many months, sometimes for a year or more.

Low doses of prednisone can often relieve symptoms without causing major side effects.


Most of these other drugs are immune system suppressants. This means that they prevent your immune system from fighting things like bacteria and viruses. As a result, you may have a greater chance of getting infections.

Most of these drugs also can cause serious side effects. Some also could increase your chances of getting cancer, especially if you take them at high doses.

You and your doctor must weigh living with the symptoms of sarcoidosis against the side effects of the drugs.

Some drugs work better than others for different people.

You may be given more than one drug.

Some drugs used to treat sarcoidosis are taken by mouth. Others are applied locally to an affected area.

Local therapy is the safest way to treat sarcoidosis. The drug is applied directly to the affected area. As a result, only small amounts of the drug reach other parts of your body.

Drugs used for local therapy include:

Eye drops
Inhaled drugs for your lungs
Skin creams.
Drugs can be used locally only if the affected area is easily reached. For instance, inhaled steroids can ease coughing and wheezing in the upper airways, but they don't seem to relieve these symptoms when the affected lung tissue is deep within your chest.
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The other drugs used to treat sarcoidosis include:

Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil). This drug can usually help people who have sarcoidosis in the skin or a high level of calcium in their blood. This drug can irritate your stomach.

It also can cause eye problems. Before starting on this drug, you should see an ophthalmologist (of"thal-mol'o-jist), or eye doctor, for some baseline tests. Once you start taking it, you should have your eyes examined every 6 months.


Methotrexate. This drug is taken once a week by mouth or injection and usually takes up to 6 months to relieve symptoms.

Liver damage. This is the most serious side effect. If you take methotrexate you should be followed regularly by your physician.
If you are pregnant, you should not take this drug.

Taking folic acid can help you reduce your chances of having bad side effects from methotrexate.

Azathioprine (Imuran). This drug may work in about half of the people who have sarcoidosis. You usually take it for at least 6 months. Side effects include:


Nausea
Reduced white blood cell levels, which increases your chances of getting an infection.

This drug has caused cancer in some people, especially when they have taken it at high doses.

If you are pregnant, you should not take this drug.




Cyclophosphamide can be given intravenously (through one of your veins), which lessens some of its side effects, but this doesn't reduce the risk of cancer.
Treatments for Specific Types of Sarcoidosis

Eyes. Sarcoidosis in your eyes almost always responds well to treatment. Often, the only treatment you need is eye drops containing corticosteroids. You should have yearly eye exams, even if you think your eyes are doing well.




Erythema nodosum. These painful bumps on your shins often go away in weeks to months without treatment. Your doctor probably will not give you medication unless you are very uncomfortable. Aspirin or ibuprofen, an anti-inflammatory drug that you can buy without a prescription, will usually help.



Lupus Pernio. This rash on your face, especially your cheeks and nose, can be distressing because it's in a very visible area. It often occurs with loss of your sense of smell, nasal stuffiness, and sinus infections.

Options for treatment include:


Local treatment with skin creams
Oral drugs (plaquenil or prednisone, for example)
Local injections of steroid preparations.


Lupus pernio is often treated by dermatologists, doctors who specialize in skin diseases, working with a sarcoidosis specialist.
Because sarcoidosis varies so much among different people, your doctor may find it hard to tell whether the treatment is helping.





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Answer 2

Every cell in your body has on its surface a complex group of chemicals that identify those cells as you not something foreign. A healthy persons immune system recognizes those chemicals and knows not to attack those cells because then your immune system would be attacking you. In an autoimmune condition that is exactly what happens, something goes wrong and your immune system no longer recognizes some tissues as you and begins to attack those tissues as if they were a foreign invader that must be destroyed. An ANA, or anti-nuclear-antibody is a test that may show your immune system producing antibodies against your own cells and yes that would be an autoimmune condition. Autoimmune diseases are numerous and usually affect women more often then men, I do not know the reason why this is.

Answer 3

Sarcoidosis: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/sarc/sar_whatis.html

Answer 4

I have that too. You can do a google search, and it will give you all the specifics. I'll try to get back to you with a link.

Dog

Here we go.... http://hipusa.com/eTools/webmd/A-Z_Encyclopedia/sarcoidosissymptoms.htm