Early diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis by whole-body ¹⁸F-FDG PET/CT: a case report

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a recurrent, destructive inflammatory disease that extensively involves cartilage and connective tissues, and manifests itself as a multi systemic disease that often involves the ears, nose, eyes, joints and other organs, as well as respiratory tract and cardiovascular system. Since the etiology of this disease is not yet clear, and the early symptoms are not typical, it is easy to lead to missed diagnosis and misdiagnosis. The authors report a case of early RP with respiratory symptoms as the main manifestation, and introduce the characteristics of this disease from clinical symptoms, laboratory examination and whole-body ¹⁸F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) PET/CT manifestation, and deepen the understanding of RP by reviewing the literature, with the aim of offering further reference for its diagnosis and treatment.