Familial Mediterranean fever

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Temperature measurement

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Familial Mediterranean fever

Alternative Names:

Familial paroxysmal polyserositis; Periodic peritonitis; Recurrent polyserositis; Benign paroxysmal peritonitis; Periodic disease; Periodic fever

Symptoms:

Fever or alternating chills and fever (relapsing)
Abdominal pain
Chest pain that occurs repeatedly (recurrent)
Recurrent abdominal pain, recurrent
Recurrent joint pain
- Pain in hip, knee, ankle, shoulder elbow or wrist
- Pain over the small joints of the foot or hand
- Pain in other joints
Skin lesions that are red and swollen and range from 5-20 cm in diameter

Signs and tests:

There is no specific test to diagnose this disease. Sometimes analysis of the chromosomes can help. Elimination of other possible diseases by laboratory tests or x-rays will help determine the diagnosis.

Patients with familial Mediterranean fever may have any of the following during an attack:

Elevated white blood cell count
Elevated erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR)
Elevated plasma fibrinogen
Elevated serum haptoglobin
Elevated ceruloplasmin
Elevated C-reactive protein

Review Date: 7/8/2004
Reviewed By: Daniel Levy, M.D., Ph.D., Infectious Diseases, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Baltimore, MD. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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