A Comparative Analysis of CT Findings in Chronic Beryllium Disease and Sarcoidosis

Background Chronic beryllium disease (CBD) is considered indistinguishable from pulmonary sarcoidosis. However, our previous findings demonstrate more restrictive lung function in patients with CBD compared to sarcoidosis. This study aimed to determine whether this translates to distinct CT presentations in CBD, which remain poorly characterised in the literature. Methods We performed a retrospective comparative analysis of CT findings in lymphocyte proliferation test-confirmed CBD patients (n=57) and an all-comer sarcoidosis cohort (n=249). Results While lymphadenopathy was prevalent in both diseases (CBD 79.6%; sarcoidosis 87.2%), there was a trend towards less extrathoracic lymph node involvement in CBD than in sarcoidosis (5.6% vs 11,2%, p=.2). Pulmonary nodules were numerically less frequent (50.0% vs 63.9%, p=.06), while consolidations (13.2% vs 15.7%) and ground glass opacities (16.7% vs 14.9%) had comparable frequency. Fibrosis emerged as a distinguishing feature in CBD (20.4% definite, 7.4% indeterminate) compared to sarcoidosis (6.0% definite, 3.2% indeterminate) (p