Spotlight: Sarcoidosis

Sarcoidosis is a relatively rare condition in which granulomas (small patches of red and swollen tissue) develop in the organs of the body, most often in the lungs and on the skin, but also can affect the heart, eyes, nervous system, lymph nodes and joints. The word sarcoidosis comes from the Greek meaning ‘flesh-like disease process'. Sarcoidosis was first described by an English physician, Jonathan Hutchinson, who in 1869, had a patient at Blackfriars Hospital in London, who presented with ‘a number of peculiar patches of a dark, purplish colour on his extremities'. In 1877, Hutc...