The Diagnosis of Boeck's Sarcoid by Skeletal Muscle Biopsy

Sarcoidosis

“…Biopsies of gastrocnemius muscle in three of these all showed epithelioid and giant-cell granulomas of sarcoid type, although there were no symptoms specifically referable to muscles. Similar findings in random muscle biopsies in patients with active sarcoidosis were reported by Powell (1953), Maurice (1955), Lafon et al (1955), and Phillips and Phillips (1956). Wallace et al (1958) performed random muscle biopsies in 42 patients with sarcoidosis with histological support from biopsies from other sites in 32 and from Kveim tests in ten.…”

Symptomatic sarcoidosis of skeletal muscle

“…Although muscle biopsy may give a histological diagnosis in 50 to 800/,, of patients with early sarcoidosis (Myers et al, 1952;Maurice, 1955;Phillips and Phillips, 1956;Wallace et al, 1958) the procedure has largely been made superfluous by the Kveim test and can now rarely be justified. Muscle biopsy has not been used routinely in the diagnosis of chronic sarcoidosis and its value in this context is not known.…”

“…While asymptomatic involvement of skeletal muscle in sarcoidosis is sufficiently common to make muscle biopsy one of the accepted methods of tissue diagnosis (Myers et al, 1952;Phillips and Phillips, 1956;Wallace et al, 1958), symptomatic involvement is rare and only 44 cases have been recorded. There are three main clinical groups:…”

Granulomatous myopathy: its relationship to sarcoidosis and polymyositis.

“…Then there appeared the papers of Myers et al (1952), Powell (1953), Phillips and Phillips (1956) and Wallace et al (1958), from which it was concluded that sarcoidosis of muscle was relatively common, that it might be asymptomatic, and that its incidence appeared to vary directly with organ involvement elsewhere. It was pointed out that, because lesions were sparsely distributed, a number of sections might be required in order to demonstrate a granuloma.…”