Successful treatment of relapsing polychondritis with mycophenolate mofetil.

Overview

We report a 50 year old man who presented to our clinic with a 5 year history of intermittent bilateral ear pain and underwent 2 biopsies which revealed nonspecific findings. A diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis was made based on positive serum antibodies to type II collagen and a wedge biopsy which revealed areas of cartilage necrosis and focal areas of perichondral inflammation with lymphocytes and histiocytes. He was successfully treated with a prednisone taper and mycophenolate mofetil 3 g per day (increased from the initial dose of 2 g per day). During his last clinic follow up, 17 months after beginning mycophenolate mofetil, our patient had no subjective symptoms and objectively had no inflammation or pain to palpation. He was continued on prednisone 5 mg daily and mycophenolate mofetil 3 g per day.