Familial Mediterranean Fever

Familial mediterranean fever (fmf) or recurrent polyserositis is an inherited multisystemdisease manifested by recurrent painful attacks affecting the abdomen, chest or joints, oftenaccompanied by fever and sometimes a skin rash. fmf is a genetic condition, inherited in anautosomal recessive fashions. fmf could be described as a disorder of inappropriateinflammation of one or more of serusal membrane (serositis). the diagnosis of fmf isgenerally based on the clinical criteria although the direct analysis of mefv gene is the onlymethod to be certain of the disease. the goals of therapy are to reduce the morbidity andprevent complications of the disease, which is consists of taking colchicine, a neutrophilsuppresisive agent. since fmf is a genetic disease, it can be prevented only if the carriers ofthe defective gene are identified.