Familial Mediterranean Fever

Aim: Familial Mediterranean fever, is the most common and well known disease in hereditary periodic fever syndromes at the present time. In this review we summarized the disease, which was seen frequently in our country, and newly treatment methods. Main findings: Familial Mediterranean fever was described in a Jewish girl in 1908. Generally it was seen in Armenians, Sefaradian Jew, Arabians and Anatolian Turks. Pathogenesis of the disease was not clear. Characteristic feature of the disease is acute fever attacks accompanied with abdominal pain, chest pain and joint pain. The most important complication is type AA amiloidosis. There is no specific laboratory or radiological finding. Colchicum which is used in the treatment, decreases frequency of attacks and prevents from development of amiloidosis. Result: Aproximately 1/4 patients are resistive to colchicum treatment. There are some studies which shows adding interferon a, selective seratonine reuptake inhibitors and biological agents to the treatment are effective in these patients.