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An analysis of seasonality of sarcoidosis in the United States veteran population: 2000-2007.

BACKGROUND
The onset of sarcoidosis is thought to be seasonal, particularly Lofgren's syndrome. However, there are conflicting data on seasonality by country and by radiographic stage.


OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine if there is seasonality of the diagnosis of sarcoidosis in outpatients in the United States.


METHODS AND RESULTS
Using time series methods, we performed a retrospective analysis of 3791 incident cases of sarcoidosis in the Veteran's Health Administration national outpatient claims database (2000-2007). We did not find overall seasonality in the occurrence of new sarcoidosis in United States Veterans (p = 0.9860), even after we subdivided the United States by northern (p = 0.6824) and southern regions (p = 0.4588).


CONCLUSION
The lack of seasonality in this study indicates that season is not a dominant factor in complex gene-environment-host interaction that precedes presentation of new sarcoidosis cases in the United States Veteran population.