A careful medical history can provide important clues to the diagnosis of a neck mass.1 The patient's age and the size and duration of the mass are the most significant predictors of neoplasia.1 The patient's age is most important, because the risk of malignancy becomes greater with increasing age.2
Shortness of breath is a common symptom. Some patients have troublesome dry cough and others may have pain in the chest. Tiredness, lethargy, listlessness and joint pains are common. Sarcoidosis may also cause fever and weight loss.
The organs most affected by sarcoidosis are the lungs. Enlarged lymph nodes at the place where the lungs meet the heart or to the right of the windpipe (trachea) may be seen on a chest x-ray. Sarcoidosis causes inflammation in the lungs that may eventually lead to scarring and the formation of cysts. Fortunately, such progressive scarring occurs infrequently. Occasionally, the fungus Aspergillus can settle in (colonize) the lung cysts, grow, and cause bleeding.