Relapsing polychondritis, a rare cause of valvulopathy: a review of the medical literature.

Relapsing polychondritis is an inflammatory disease that involves cartilaginous structures predominantly in the nose, ears and respiratory tract. Cardiovascular involvement is not common. Despite this, they are the second cause of death in patients with relapsing polychondritis. The structures usually affected by this disease are the heart valves, with regurgitation being the most common valvulopathy. We present the case of a patient without previous diagnosis of relapsing polychondritis who was referred to our Institute with heart failure secondary to aortic regurgitation, initially attributed to endocarditis.