TIL: Pleural plaques are associated with asbestosis (and feel really weird to the touch). These pathological features are like rectangular islands of plastic glued on to the balloon-like elastic surface of the parietal pleura, the thin connective tissue that separates the lungs from the ribcage.
Sarcoidosis is a true medical mystery. It's a disease of exclusion, which means that you can only diagnose someone with it once you've ruled out everything else. There is no confirmatory test to prove someone has it. But unlike other diseases of exclusion (e.g. idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis), this isn't just a name given to a vague collection of symptoms to make people feel better than if we just said we don't know what they have.
Sarcoidosis is a specific disease with characteristic symptoms, we just have no idea what causes it. It seems like immune system dysfunction is a part of the puzzle, but what is the trigger? There is a genetic component, but it's not fully explained by that either.
One of my favorite things in college was the first time I took classes on material that was so advanced or specific that my professors truly didn't know part of their material. If my high school teachers didn't know something, it was because they personally just didn't know; in college, it was because no one knew... yet. It's fun still being in a field that is so tied to the bleeding edge of research that the textbook is always being rewritten.
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