TY - JOUR T1 - Characteristics and Clinical Outcome of 295 Patients with Relapsing Polychondritis JF - The Journal of Rheumatology JO - J Rheumatol DO - 10.3899/jrheum.210062 SP - jrheum.210062 AU - Nan Chen AU - Yi Zheng Y1 - 2021/08/01 UR - http://www.jrheum.org/content/early/2021/07/25/jrheum.210062.abstract N2 - Objective This study analyzes the clinical features of Chinese patients with relapsing polychondritis (RP). Methods The clinical data of 295 patients with RP of Beijing Tongren Hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Results The mean age of onset was 41.0 ± 15.0 years. The sex ratio was 1:1. Up to 70.5% of the patients had airway involvement during the disease course; among them, the larynx was most commonly affected (82.2%). Exactly 25.7% of the patients with laryngeal involvement underwent tracheotomy due to progressive dyspnea or acute laryngeal obstruction. Younger onset age and initially presenting with respiratory symptoms were independent risk factors for tracheotomy in patients with RP with laryngeal involvement. The risk of tracheotomy in patients who presented with respiratory symptoms was 2.354 times higher than that in patients who presented with other symptoms (hazard ratio [HR], 2.354; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.230–4.503; p =0.010). The risk of tracheotomy increased by 4.8% for every 1 year decrease in the onset age (HR, 0.952; 95% CI, 0.931–0.973; p < 0.001). The incidence of lower respiratory tract infection was much higher in patients with airway involvement than that in those without airway involvement. The main cause of death was respiratory failure due to airway obstruction. Conclusion There is a high prevalence of airway involvement in Chinese patients with RP. Laryngeal involvement is associated with a high risk of death. More attention should be paid to RP patients with laryngeal involvement who are young at disease onset and present with respiratory symptoms. ER -