The Journal of the Korean Rheumatism Association  2000;7(3):280-285

A Case of Pulmonary Hypertension and Left Vocal Cord Palsy in a Patient with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Do Young KIM 1 ; Jung Hoon SUH ; Shin Myung KANG ; Chang Oh KIM ; Ho Guun NA ; Joong Sun KIM ; Jung sik SONG ; Yong Beom PARK ; Won Ki LEE ; Hong Sik CHOI ; Soo Kon LEE

Affiliations

+expand

Keywords

Vocal cord palsy; Pulmonary hypertension; Systemic lupus erythematosus

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

There have been few case reports on the association of vocal cord palsy and pulmonary hypertension in a systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patient. Most cases had left vocal cord palsy caused by compression of left recurrent laryngeal nerve secondary to pulmonary hypertension, and only two cases in the literature were caused by vasculitis or inflammation of the right recurrent laryngeal nerve not related to pulmonary hypertension. Recently, we have experienced a 23-year-old female patient who presented hoarseness and multiple joint pain. She was diagnozed as SLE and left vocal cord palsy, and echocardiographic examination demonstrated enlargement of right atrium, right ventricle, and elevated right ventricular pressure (systolic pressure 47mmHg). She took high-dose glucocorticoid and calcium channel blocker. About one month later, there was significant improvement of hoarseness, arthritis, and cardiomegaly, and showed improvement of the left vocal cord palsy on the laryngoscopic examination. We report a case of left vocal cord palsy and pulmonary hypertension accompanied by SLE who experienced improvement of hoarseness after steroid treatment.