Successful Response to Golimumab in a Case of Relapsing Polychondritis Overlapping with Ulcerative Colitis

A 51-year-old Japanese man was diagnosed with left-sided ulcerative colitis (UC) at age 41. He was treated with mesalazine and azathioprine and maintained remission. At age 51, the patient developed bloody stools, abdominal pain, scleritis, arthritis, cough, bloody sputum, and pericardial effusion. Considering that pericardial effusion is an atypical extraintestinal complication of UC, and the patient met the diagnostic criteria for relapsing polychondritis (RP), a diagnosis of RP complicating a relapse of UC was made. Steroid therapy was administered, and both diseases improved. Golimumab, an anti-tumor necrosis factor-α inhibitor, was introduced as maintenance therapy for UC. All symptoms, including pericardial effusion, improved. Subsequently, no relapse of UC or RP was observed. As only a few cases of RP overlapping with UC have been reported and no treatment protocol has been established, we considered this case valuable and worthy of publication.