[Cholinergic bronchial reactivity in patients with sarcoidosis].

The acetylcholine aerosol test was used for testing 65 patients suffering from sarcoidosis for cholinergic bronchial hyperexcitability. Among 46 patients with stage I and stage II sarcoidosis there was only one female patient where the acetylcholine aerosol test gave positive results; however, it was not possible to establish a relationship between bronchial hyperexcitability and sarcoidosis. In two other patients with stage III sarcoidosis, where the acetylcholine aerosol test also gave positive results, there obviously was a close relationship between bronchial hyperexcitability and sarcoidosis. It is considered that positive acetylcholine aerosol test results might be interpreted as being indicative of stage III sarcoidosis. It should be noted in this connection that the third or fibrotic stage of sarcoidosis was characterized by a very much smaller number of cases showing positive acteylcholine aerosol test results than are, in general, observed for those forms of tuberculosis which are accompanied by more or less widespread fibrous processes taking place in, and causing major alterations to, the lungs and which may be described as chronically hematogenously disseminated, fibrocavernous, and cirrhotic forms of pulmonary tuberculosis. Also discussed in detail are the possible reasons for this different behavior.