RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Sarcoidosis of the nervous system
JF Practical Neurology
JO Pract Neurol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
SP 234
OP 244
DO 10.1136/jnnp.2007.124263
VO 7
IS 4
A1 F G Joseph
A1 N J Scolding
YR 2007
UL http://pn.bmj.com/content/7/4/234.abstract
AB Although sarcoidosis is rarely confined to the nervous system, any neurological features that do occur frequently happen early in the course of the disease. The most common neurological presentation is with cranial neuropathies, but seizures, chronic meningitis and the effects of mass lesions are also frequent. The diagnostic process should first confirm nervous system involvement and then provide supportive evidence for the underlying disease; in the absence of any positive tissue biopsy, the most useful diagnostic tests are gadolinium enhanced MRI of the brain and CSF analysis, although both are non-specific. The mainstay of treatment is corticosteroids, but these often have to be combined with other immunosuppressants such as methotrexate, hydroxychloroquine or cyclophosphamide. There is increasing evidence that infliximab is a safe treatment with good steroid sparing capacity.