Reply to P. B. et al. , to Fahim and Rosewarne, and to Reich

• Published in: American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine Vol. 202; no. 9; pp. 1322 - 1324
• Main Authors: Patterson, Karen C., Bonham, Catherine A., Wilson, Kevin C., Crouser, Elliott D., Baughman, Robert P., Maier, Lisa A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York American Thoracic Society 01.11.2020
• Subjects: Correspondence; Guidelines; Medical diagnosis; Sarcoidosis
• ISSN: 1073-449X; 1535-4970
• DOI: 10.1164/rccm.202006-2328LE

The American Thoracic Society (ATS) Sarcoidosis Diagnosis and Detection Guideline Committee relishes the engagement of the sarcoidosis community and would like to sincerely thank correspondents of these three letters for their care of patients with sarcoidosis, contributions to sarcoidosis research, and raising these excellent discussion points. Notably, ATS guideline development follows strict Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluations (GRADE) methodology to ensure that the highest level of evidence is reviewed and synthesized. As a corollary to this rigorous method, a limited number of key questions with highest clinical impact to the field of sarcoidosis and for which sufficient supportive data were available were selected for a comprehensive search and review of the literature. Therefore, a number of compelling questions, such as the utility of cervical lymph node biopsy, were not selected for review. In this regard, we are indebted to the ATS methodologists and ATS librarian who searched and reviewed thousands of publications for this guideline.