Statistics show that this clinical manifestation is present in 15% of persons with RP and occurs at some point in 65% of persons with RP.Nasal obstruction is not a common feature. Atrophy may eventually develop secondarily during the disease, this appears gradual and is not easily noticed. This can result in collapse of the nasal septum with saddle-nose deformity, which is painless but irreversible. Respiratory tract
Inflammation occurs in the laryngeal, tracheal and bronchial cartilages. Both of these sites are involved in 10% of persons with RP at presentation and 50% over the course of this autoimmune disease, and is more common among females. The involvement of the laryngotracheobronchial cartilages may be severe and life-threatening; it causes one-third of all deaths among persons with RP. Laryngeal chondritis is manifested as pain above the thyroid gland and, more importantly, as dysphonia with a hoarse voice or transient aphonia. Because this disease is relapsing, recurrent laryngeal inflammation may result in laryngomalacia or permanent laryngeal stenosis with inspiratory dyspnea that may require emergency tracheotomy as a temporary or permanent measure.Tracheobronchial involvement may or may not be accompanied with laryngeal chondritis and is potentially the most severe manifestation of RP.The symptoms consist of dyspnea, wheezing, a nonproductive cough, and recurrent, sometimes severe, lower respiratory tract infections. Obstructive respiratory failure may develop as the result of either permanent tracheal or bronchial narrowing or chondromalacia with expiratory collapse of the tracheobronchial tree. Endoscopy, intubation, or tracheotomy has been shown to hasten death. Ribs
Involvement of the rib cartilages results in costochondritis.
Biopsy of nasal cartilage revealed loss of the cartilage matrix and a hyperplastic mucous
membrane. Jaksch von Wartenhorst considered this was an undescribed degenerative disorder of cartilage and named it Polychondropathia. He even took his patients occupation into consideration, and related the cause to excessive alcohol intake.Since then, the disease has received many names. The following table shows the history of the nomenclature of relapsing polychondritis. The current name, Relapsing Polychondritis (RP), was introduced by Pearson and his colleagues in 1960 to emphasize the episodic course of the disease. Research
There has been little research on neurological problems related to RP. If these cartilage structures get inflamed, they could press against nerves and cause a variety of problems that is seen in RP like peripheral neuropathy and many more. References
Further reading
Sanders, Lisa (14 November 2021) [10 November 2021 (online)]. "A Doctor Asks Two Strange Questions That Reveal a Mysterious Disease". The New York Times Magazine. p. 22. Retrieved 10 November 2021. Trentham DE, Le CH (July 1998). "Relapsing polychondritis". Ann. Intern. Med. 129 (2): 114–22. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-129-2-199807150-00011. PMID 9669970. S2CID 31763543. Archived from the original on 2014-11-08. Retrieved 2006-06-20.