Epidemiology of sarcoidosis in Japan

¹ Dept of Internal Medicine (Divisions of Pulmonary Medicine, Infectious Diseases, and Oncology), Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan
² Dept of Internal Medicine, Nisibeppu National Hospital, Beppu, Japan
³ Dept of Respiratory Medicine, Japanese Red Cross Medical Center, Tokyo, Japan
⁴ Dept of Respiratory Oncology and Molecular Medicine, Institute of Development, Aging, and Cancer, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: azuma_arata{at}yahoo.co.jp.

	Abstract

The present study was designed to identify recent clinical phenotypes using the National Epidemiological Survey and to compare findings with those of previous surveys in Japan.

Pathologically-confirmed sarcoidosis cases newly diagnosed in 2004 were eligible for this study. Disease parameters were recorded and compared.

A total of 1, 027 patients was enrolled from a population encompassing 79.4% of the entire Japanese people. The study population consisted of 364 males and 663 females, giving an incidence rate of 1.01 per 100, 000 inhabitants (0.73 for males and 1.28 for females). The age-specific incidence rate displayed a biphasic pattern in the whole patient population, and in the females. The male incidence rates peaked in 20–34 yr-olds. A second peak for 50–60 yr-old females showed a higher incidence than the first younger peak. Patients with abnormalities in eyes, skin and cardiac laboratory findings accounted for 54.8%, 35.4% and 23.0% of cases, respectively. The female/male incidence ratio was increased, and the frequency of eye and skin involvement and cardiac abnormality was higher, than in previous surveys conducted in Japan.

The data obtained in this study differ from those of other countries and showed changes in sarcoidosis clinical phenotypes compared with previous studies in Japan.

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