BMC Pulmonary Medicine (Jun 2022)

Comparison of relapsing polychondritis patients with and without respiratory involvement based on chest computed tomography: a retrospective cohort study

  • Dong Wang,
  • Lujia Guan,
  • Xin Dong,
  • Xiaofan Zhu,
  • Zhaohui Tong

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/s12890-022-01955-7
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 22, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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Abstract Background Relapsing polychondritis (RP) patients with tracheal cartilage involvement are different from other patients. The objective of this study was to compare the clinical features and disease patterns between a respiratory involvement subgroup and a non-respiratory involvement subgroup according to chest computed tomography. Method We performed a retrospective cohort study collecting RP patients hospitalized at the Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital between January 2012 and August 2021. Results Respiratory involvement affected 59.7% of patients in our cohort. The incidence of costochondritis was more common in RP patients with respiratory involvement (p = 0.03); the incidence of inflammatory eye disease (p = 0.001) and auricular chondritis (p = 0.001) was less frequent in RP respiratory involvement patients.. Compared with the non-respiratory involvement subgroup the incidence of pulmonary infection marginally increased in the respiratory involvement subgroup (p = 0.06). Inflammatory indexes except for C-reactive protein to albumin ratio (CAR) were significantly higher in the respiratory involvement subgroup; analysis revealed no significant relationship between inflammatory indexes and pulmonary infection. Conclusion RP patients with respiratory involvement had a greater incidence of costochondritis and pulmonary infectionand lesser incidence of inflammatory eye diseases and auricular chondritis compared to non-respiratory involvement. Increasing inflammatory indexes suggests that patients with respiratory involvement had a higher disease activity index of RP. The difference in probability of survival was insignificant between subgroups.

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