Table 3.

Differences Among Patients with Relapsing Polychondritis Grouped by Organ System Involvement

	All Patients	Ear/Nose Inolvment	Ear/Nose not Involved	P value	Airway Involvment	Airway not Involved	P value	Joint Involvement	Joint not Involved	P value
	n=304	n=287	n=17		n=225	n=79		n=250	n=54
	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)		n (%)	n (%)		n (%)	n (%)
Age at Diagnosis
Age of diagnosis > 40 years old	188 (62)	182 (63)	6 (35)	0.04	143 (64)	45 (57)	0.3	162 (65)	26 (48)	0.03
Pathway to Diagnosis
ER visits prior to diagnosis	164 (54)	153(53)	10 (59)	0.8	128 (57)	34 (43)	0.04	131 (52)	32 (59)	0.4
Biopsy	55 (18)	49 (17)	6 (35)	0.1	38 (17)	17 (22)	0.4	45 (18)	10 (19)	0.8
Saw > 3 physicians prior RP diagnosis	168 (55)	171(60)	7 (41)	0.2	134 (60)	32 (41)	<0.01	142 (57)	25 (46)	0.2
Other Diagnoses
Asthma	95 (31)	85 (30)	10 (59)	0.02	78 (34)	17 (22)	0.03	77 (31)	18 (33)	0.7
Ear Infection	145 (48)	145 (51)	1 (6)	<0.01	107 (48)	38 (48)	>0.9	126 (50)	19 (35)	0.05
Sinusitis	118 (41)	113 (42)	5 (30)	0.4	94 (45)	24 (31)	0.04	104 (45)	14 (28)	0.02
Fibromyalgia	71 (23)	70 (25)	1 (6)	0.08	63 (28)	9 (11)	<0.01	67 (27)	4 (7)	<0.01
Treatment
DMARDS or Biologics	253 (83)	237 (82)	12 (71)	0.2	182 (76)	58 (24)	0.1	213 (86)	33 (61)	<0.01
DMARDs	206 (68)	199 (69)	9 (53)	0.1	152 (67)	51 (65)	0.7	173 (69)	30 (55)	0.06
Biologics	47 (15)	38 (13)	3 (17)	0.7	30 (13)	7 (9)	0.4	40 (16)	3 (5)	0.05
Prednisone >60 mg/day during flare	134 (44)	124 (53)	9 (53)	0.4	112 (49)	23 (29)	<0.01	113 (45)	20 (37)	0.2
Major Complications	181 (60)	173 (60)	8 (47)	0.3	140 (63)	41 (52)	0.1	152 (60)	29 (54)	0.3
Disability	63 (21)	59 (21)	4 (25)	0.7	53 (24)	10 (13)	0.05	59 (24)	4 (7)	<0.01
Tracheomalacia	47 (15)	41 (14)	5 (29)	0.1	44 (20)	3 (4)	<0.01	41 (17)	6 (11)	0.4
Hearing loss	104 (34)	100 (35)	4 (24)	0.4	76 (34)	28 (35)	0.7	98 (39)	6 (11)	<0.01

^*Percent’s may not be based on total denominators if there were missing responses