Musculoskeletal Sarcoidosis: Spectrum of Appearances at MR Imaging

Abstract

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging reveals a broad range of musculoskeletal abnormalities in patients with sarcoidosis, including focal and diffuse muscle lesions, soft-tissue masses, joint abnormalities, and marrow infiltration of small and large bones. Long bone and axial skeletal involvement may be occult at conventional radiography but depicted at MR imaging, with an appearance that resembles that of osseous metastases. Sarcoidosis-related findings may be detected at dedicated MR imaging for osteoarticular symptoms in sarcoidosis patients or encountered incidentally at MR imaging performed for other indications. Correlation with clinical and laboratory findings is essential for correct diagnosis because the MR imaging findings are nonspecific in most cases. The radiologist should be aware of potential sarcoidal causes in the differential diagnosis of musculoskeletal lesions in patients with proved or suspected sarcoidosis. Such consideration will have a profound effect on the interpretation of images and on the study of patients with dual diagnoses of sarcoidosis and neoplasm.

A Japanese Case of Vertebral Sarcoidosis

“…Laboratory tests frequently show elevated ACE levels in sarcoidosis patients with skeletal involvement (2). Imaging modalities, such as CT and MRI, are reported to be equally good at detecting sarcoidosis lesions in patients with vertebral involvement (11)(12)(13)(14), although other reports suggest the superiority of MRI (15,16). Remarkably, in our case, CT was able to capture images of sclerotic lesions, which are generally rare.…”

Hepatosplenic and Muscular Sarcoidosis: Characterization with MR Imaging

“…15 Elevated concentrations of muscle enzymes, such as creatine phosphokinase and myoglobin, usually occur in patients with muscular sarcoidosis. However, laboratory, CT, sonography, and gallium-67 scintigraphyˆndings are nonspeciˆc.…”

Romatolog gözüyle sarkoidoz

“…MRG, bilgisayarl› tomografi (BT) ve pozitron emisyon tomografisi (PET) gibi görüntüleme yöntemleri de hem tan›da (kas içinde y›ld›z fleklinde lezyonlar), hem de biyopsi yap›lacak kas bölgesinin seçimin-de yard›mc› olabilir. [16,30,26] Nodüler miyopati ise, kaslarda tümör benzeri ele gelen nodüler lezyonlar ile karakterizedir. [26] Kesin tan› histolojik olarak konulur.…”