Home > Encyclopedia of Medicine > Relapsing Polychondritis

Definition

Relapsing polychondritis is a disease characterized by autoimmune-like episodic or progressive inflammation of cartilage and other connective tissue, such as the nose, ears, throat, joints, kidneys, and heart.

Description

Cartilage is a tough, flexible tissue that turns into bone in many places in the body. Bones all start out as cartilage in the fetus. Consequently, children have more cartilage than adults. Cartilage persists in adults in the linings of joints, the ears, the nose, the airway and the ribs near the breast bone. All these sites are attacked by relapsing polychondritis, which usually occurs equally in middle-aged males and females. It is frequently diagnosed along with rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, and...