title: Relapsing polychondritis--two cases with tracheal stenosis and inner ear involvement.
abstract: Relapsing polychondritis is a rare disease which often presents firstly to ear, nose and throat (ENT) departments. Its complications, respiratory, cardiovascular, renal and neurological are life-threatening; thus it is important to recognize the disease and its complications early. Treatment for relapsing polychondritis may have serious side-effects which should be taken into account when managing these patients. We report two young patients with relapsing polychondritis and their treatments; both had severe tracheal stenosis responding in one case to pharmacological and in the other to surgical intervention.
authors.affiliation: Beatson Institute for Cancer Research, Wolfson Laboratory for Molecular Pathology, Bearsden, Glasgow.
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Wakeel
authors.forename: A D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Ormerod
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D007758:Ear, Inner; D005260:Female; D006319:Hearing Loss, Sensorineural / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D011081:Polychondritis, Relapsing / Q000150:complications* / Q000188:drug therapy; D014135:Tracheal Stenosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000628:therapy