Three Cases of Relapsing Polychondritis

Kim, Seong Ho; Lim, Hee Young; Cho, You Sook; Kim, Chan; Yoo, Bin; Ko, Yoon Seok; Kim, Woo Seong; Moon, Hee Bom

Abstract

Relapsing polychondritis, a rare multisystem disease, is characterized by wide spread potentially destructive inflammatory lesions, involving cartilaginous structures throughout the body. Auricular chondritis is the most frequent presenting sign of this disease, with arthritis being the second. Other clinical menifestations include nasal chondritis, scleritis, damage to tracheobroncheal cartilage, and cardiovascular and renal involvement. We experienced three cases of relapsiug polychondritis. One case is 66 year old male with bilateral auricular chondritis with histologic confirmation, episcleritis, polyarthritis, periarterial vasculitis, and sensorineural hearing loss. Another case is 42 year old male with respiratory, nasal, auricular chondritis and psoriasis with arthritis. The third case is 46 year old female with three year history of relapsing polychondritis, presenting bilateral auricular and nasal chondritis and severe respiratory tract involvement with histologic confirmation. We also reviewed the other case reports of relapsing polychondritis in Korea. The major presenting manifestations of relapsing polychondritis in Korea were respiratory tract symptoms of dyspnea, cough, and sputum. That is, auricular chondritis was less frequent thari laryngotracheal-bronchial involvement.