Table 4: Clinical and Laboratory Features of Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD) and Sarcoidosis

Table 4:
Clinical and Laboratory Features of Chronic Beryllium Disease (CBD) and Sarcoidosis
Feature	Chronic Beryllium Disease	Sarcoidosis
Occupational exposure to beryllium	Yes	No
Onset	Acute or insidious	Acute or insidious
Respiratory symptoms	Predominant organ affected	Predominant organ affected
Erythyma nodosum	No	Yes
Dermatitis	Yes	No
Cardiac	Rare	Common
Pulmonary physiology	Gas exchange abnormalities common; obstruction early, mixed obstruction/restriction or pure restriction late	Gas exchange abnormalities common; restriction, obstruction, or mixed pattern
Bilateral hilar adenopathy	Uncommon	Common
Infiltrates	Diffuse nodular or linear opacities, can be absent	Nodular and/or linear opacities, may be more focal than in CBD
Computed tomography	Small nodules, septal lines, ground-glass appearance, adenopathy	Small nodules, septal lines, adenopathy
Beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test	Positive	Negative
Granulomas	Yes, noncaseating granuloma	Yes, noncaseating granuloma
Other histology	Diffuse mononuclear cell infiltrate common, bronchial submucosa involved occasionally	Diffuse mononuclear cell infiltrate common, bronchial submucosa involved occasionally
Beryllium in tissues	Yes	No
Skin tests
- Tuberculin	Negative	Negative
- Kveim	Negative	Positive
- Beryllium patch	Positive	Negative
Elevated serum angiotensin-converting enzyme	Uncommon	Common
Response to steroid therapy	Often stabilizes disease, may improve pulmonary physiology and symptoms, usually requires continuous therapy	Often stabilizes disease that has not spontaneously remitted, may require continuous therapy
Prognosis	Variable, cor pulmonale and progressive fibrosis in some patients, more benign in others	Good prognosis for approximately 80%, may progress to end-stage fibrosis and cor pulmonale.

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