Airway obstruction in sarcoidosis. A study of 123 nonsmoking black American patients with sarcoidosis.

Airway obstruction in sarcoidosis is infrequent; however, its exact incidence is not known. The extent and severity of the functional impairment are governed by genetic, racial and environmental factors. In order to test the validity of this assumption we studied 123 black American, nonsmoking patients. Airway obstruction was present in 78 (63 percent) of the patients, considerably higher than the white European and American, and the Japanese patients.