Familial Mediterranean Fever

Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) or recurrent polyserositis is an inherited multisystem disease manifested by recurrent painful attacks affecting the abdomen, chest or joints, often accompanied by fever and sometimes a skin rash. FMF is a genetic condition, inherited in an autosomal recessive fashions. FMF could be described as a disorder of inappropriate inflammation of one or more of serusal membrane (serositis). The diagnosis of FMF is generally based on the clinical criteria although the direct analysis of MEFV gene is the only method to be certain of the disease. The goals of therapy are to reduce the morbidity and prevent complications of the disease, which is consists of taking colchicine, a neutrophil suppresisive agent. Since FMF is a genetic disease, it can be prevented only if the carriers of the defective gene are identified.