LARYNGEAL INVOLVEMENT IN RELAPSING POLYCHONDRITIS: CASE REPORT AND REVIEW OF LITERATURE

FRANCESCO DISPENZA¹, FRANCESCO LORUSSO², SALVATORE GALLINA³, FRANCESCO MARTINES³

¹Istituto Euro-Mediterraneo di Scienza e Tecnologia, Palermo, Italy - ²U.O. Otorinolaringoiatria, A.U.O.P. “Paolo Giaccone”, Palermo - ³Bio.Ne.C. Department University of Palermo, Italy

Relapsing polychondritis is a rare multisystem autoimmune disease of unknown origin characterised by recurrent episodes of inflammation and progressive destruction of the cartilaginous structures and connective tissue of the whole body.

The diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis is difficult.

We present a review of the literature and describe a case of 49-year old woman.

Her symptoms began in June 2004 with sore throat, dysphonia, pain in the thoracic wall and some joints, a slightly raised tem-

perature and cough. The objective picture was immediately apparent after carrying out a high definition neck-thorax computed tomo- graphy and a laryngoscopy with fiber optics, which showed considerable laryngo-tracheal damage.

As can be seen the diagnosis of RP today remains very difficult. The delay in diagnosis of our patient was considerable as described in literature and now estimated to be about 2.9 years. Perhaps an ENT examination would have hastened the diagnosis.