INTRODUCTION Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a hereditary autoinflammatory disease characterized by recurrent self-limiting fever and serositis that mainly affects Mediterranean populations. Many patients with FMF have been reported in Japan due to increasing recognition of this condition and the availability of genetic analysis for the gene responsible, MEFV. The present study was perfor...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an inherited disease whose manifestations are acute but reversible attacks of sterile inflammation affecting synovial and serosal spaces. The FMF gene (MEFV) was recently cloned, and it codes for a protein (pyrin/marenostrin) homologous to known nuclear factors. We previously reported the deficient activity of a C5a/interleukin (IL)-8 inhibitor, a physiolog...

BACKGROUND Pyrin is a newly recognised intracellular regulator of inflammation, and mutations in MEFV, the gene encoding pyrin, are the cause of familial Mediterranean fever. OBJECTIVE To determine if known mutations of MEFV are associated with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) morbidity or can modify RA severity. METHODS The frequency of the three most common MEFV mutations: M694V, V726A, and E148...

OBJECTIVES Modified adult disease severity scoring systems are being used for childhood FMF. We aim to test the clinical consistency of two common severity scoring systems and to evaluate the correlation of scores with the type of FMF mutations in paediatric FMF patients since certain mutations are prone to severe disease. METHODS Two hundred and fifty-eight children with FMF were cross-secti...

BACKGROUND Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease characterised by recurrent attacks of fever and serositis. Amyloidosis is the most significant complication of FMF, leading to end stage renal disease (ESRD). Recently the gene (MEFV) causing this disease was cloned and more than 18 mutations have been identified. The hypothesis that the development of amyloidosis i...

BACKGROUND To demonstrate and clinically, genetically and demographically characterize familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) patients, maintaining remission despite colchicine abstinence. METHODS FMF patients were screened for an endurance of prolonged remission (≥ 3 years), despite refraining from colchicine. Clinical, demographic and genetic parameters were collected. Data were compared with t...

Our aim was to construct a Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) cumulative database and to propose a MEFV based phylogenetic tree. Data were collected from published studies. A meta-analysis based on 16,756 chromosomes from FMF patients and normal individuals from 14 affected populations was performed. Arlequin 2.0 and Phylip 3.2 software were used for population genetics analysis and phylogeneti...

INTRODUCTION Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an auto-inflammatory disease characterized by recurrent attacks of fever and serositis. Limited data suggest that the prevalence of sacroiliitis is increased in patients with FMF. In our present study, we assessed the prevalence of spondyloarthritis (SpA), including ankylosing spondylitis (AS), among a cohort of FMF patients and their unaffecte...

Introduction. Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an auto-inflammatory disease characterized by attacks of fever and polyserositis. FMF is often associated with other autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, polyarteritis nodosa (PAN), and Behcet. Uveitis is an inflammatory process caused by underlying infectious and inflammatory disorders. This study investigates the probable relati...

BACKGROUND Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a recessively inherited disease with a variety of clinical presentations. The disease is associated with mutations in the FMF gene (MEFV), which encodes for the pyrin protein. The role of the E148Q pyrin mutation in the FMF phenotype remains inconclusive, and some authors even view it as a disease-insignificant polymorphism. The calculated change...