[The reevaluation of categorization for ocular manifestation of sarcoidosis in the "Guidelines for Diagnosis of Ocular Sarcoidosis"].

Purpose: To increase the degree of specificity for nomenclature in the current "Guidelines for Diagnosis of Ocular Sarcoidosis" published in 1990 by the Diffuse Pulmonary Disease Research Committee of Japan.

Subjects And Methods: We reviewed the records of patients with uveitis from the Uveitis Clinic in the Department of Ophthalmology at Yokohama City University. Subjects were selected from the records of uveitis patients with histologically proven sarcoidosis (78), and others with non-sarcoidosis uveitis (81). We examined the sensitivity and specificity of suspected characteristics of ocular sarcoidosis in the current "Guidelines for Diagnosis of Ocular Sarcoidosis".

Results: The definition specificity was improved by changing anterior uveitis to granulomatous anterior uveitis, and by simplifying to cloudy mass (snowball, string of pearls) from the previous diffused/cloudy mass vitreous opacity (snowball, string of pearls), and also by changing from retinal peripheral vasculitis (in many cases retinal periphlebitis, also at times retinal peripheral arteritis) to retinal periphlebitis.

Conclusion: This newly proposed "Guidelines for Diagnosis of Ocular Sarcoidosis" gives a much clearer definition of sarcoidosis, as well as improved nomenclature for specific categories of ocular symptoms.