A rare case of sarcoidosis with rheumatoid arthritis

Sarcoidosis shows many of the clinical and immunological abnormalities and is a multi-organ granulomatous disease of unknown cause which has histological features of non-caseous epithelioid granuloma formation. Sarcoidosis is rarely coexisted rheumatoid arthritis. Although such arthropathy if occur is thought to manifest rheumatoid changes, the current presence of sarcoidosis and rheumatoid arthropathy has been reported by very few histological studies. We experienced a case of combination of sarcoidosis and rheumatoid arthritis both of which were histologically confirmed. This patient initially developed small papules on the face and was diagnosed as having sarcoidosis after one year. Later, she showed symptoms and signs of polyarthritis and was confirmed to have sarcoidosis and rheumatoid arthritis in combination by histological analysis. We present this case with some reference to literatures.