Incidence of pericardial effusion during attacks of familial Mediterranean fever.

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disorder that affects primarily Jews, Armenians, Turks, and Arabs. It is characterised by recurrent, self limited attacks of fever accompanied by inflammation of the peritoneal, synovial, and pleural surfaces. Pericardial involvement is a well known (0.7–1.4%) but rare feature of the disease. 3 Our initial observation of two patients who had recurrent pericarditis as a sole manifestation of FMF has led us to suggest that pericardial inflammation is more prevalent than generally believed. Since echocardiography is a noninvasive and sensitive tool for the detection of pericardial effusion, we undertook an echocardiographic study to assess the exact frequency of pericardial effusions during attacks of FMF.