Childhood sarcoid myopathy manifesting as joint contractures.

Sarcoidosis is a chronic multisystem disease of unknown cause that seldom occurs in children; however cases of pediatric sarcoidosis have been reported in India(l). There has been considerable progress in the understanding of this disease since Kendig(2) published an article in 1962. Most commonly the lungs, lymph nodes, skin, liver and spleen are involved, but sarcoid granulomata have been found in nearly every tissue and organ in the body. Such unusual locations as the pulmonary veins and the superior vena cava were reported by Powell(3) and nerve bundle by Ozer et a/.(4). Asymptomatic granulomatous infiltration of the striated muscle as part of the generalized sarcoid disease was first described by Myers et al.(5). Muscle pain and tenderness may occur in the early stages of sarcoidosis(6) while palpable muscle nodules may present with pain, stiffness or muscle cramps(7). To our knowledge, 79 cases of sarcoid myopathy have been published of which 44% had an isolated