A case of relapsing polychondritis mimicking Ludwig’s angina

Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a severe progressive inflammatory condition involving cartilaginous structures and caused by an autoimmune process, for which there is no confirmatory serological biomarker and which still is diagnosed on a mainly clinical basis. RP has been associated with many diseases like Sweet’s syndrome, Behcet’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and other autoimmune disorders. We attempt to describe here a unique case of a 38-year-old female with a high-grade fever, sore throat, difficulty in swallowing, hoarseness of the voice, and found to have signs of tongue swelling and inflammation of the oral cavity that mimicked Ludwig’s angina, necessitating antibiotic use. On careful re-evaluation the patient was diagnosed to have relapsing polychondritis based on auricular and respiratory tract chondritis and response to steroids. The purpose of this report is to emphasize the fact that careful clinical assessment is needed to diagnose RP, which may be misdiagnosed as Ludwig’s angina.