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Rare disease
CASE REPORT
Silent tracheobronchial chondritis in a patient with a delayed diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis
  1. Faraz Afridi1,
  2. Seema Frosh1,2
  1. 1 Internal Medicine, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, Florida, USA
  2. 2 Rheumatology, Orlando VA Medical Center, Orlando, Florida, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Faraz Afridi, faraz.afridi{at}ucf.edu

Summary

Relapsing polychondritis is a very rare autoimmune disease characterised by a relapsing inflammation of hyaline, elastic and fibrous cartilaginous tissues. The incidence is estimated to be between 3.5 and 4.5 per million people per year. Clinical signs and symptoms can be very subtle, and if left undiagnosed for a prolonged period, airway involvement can cause fibrosis of the tracheobronchial wall, leading to a fixed tracheobronchial stenosis. Eventually, this can progress to life-threatening tracheobronchomalacia due to irreversible damage and loss of tissue integrity. We report an elderly man who presented with recurrent bilateral ear inflammation and intermittent polyarthritis who was diagnosed with relapsing polychondritis with asymptomatic involvement of his large airways.

  • Rheumatology
  • Respiratory Medicine
  • Ear, Nose And Throat/otolaryngology

https://doi.org/10.1136/bcr-2017-220172

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors FA developed the design of the case report, collected data regarding the patient, analysed the data, drafted the article and approved the final version to be published. SF collected data regarding the patient, analysed the data, revised the manuscript critically for important intellectual content and approved the version of the manuscript to be published.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Obtained.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.