Immunologic Defect in Patients Recovered from Sarcoidosis

Abstract

INSENSITIVITY to tuberculin has long been A recognized as a cardinal feature of sarcoidosis. Nitter¹ described patients who reacted to tuberculin before the onset of sarcoidosis, did not react during the course of this disorder and regained tuberculin sensitivity on recovery. Similar observations have been mentioned by others^{2 , 3} and have been regarded as consistent with the concept that the depressed skin reactivity is the result of impaired immunologic mechanisms caused by the systemic lesions of sarcoidosis.⁴ Recently, in the course of another investigation, tuberculin tests were given patients who had recovered from sarcoidosis. Nearly all failed to react. This unexpected . . .