Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) or periodic disease is a recessive hereditary disease *, linked to a genetic anomaly (identified in 1997 on chromosome 16) and which particularly affects people from the Mediterranean region. It is characterized by the onset from childhood of repeated inflammatory episodes associating fever and usually abdominal pain which is sometimes very intense or even thoracic or even joint and / or muscular. Other symptoms may be associated with it such as a rash. These symptoms disappear spontaneously within a few hours to an average of 3 days but sometimes produce misleading pictures, such as that of appendicitis causing unnecessary surgery (such as an appendectomy). These repeated episodes at variable intervals are favored by fatigue, stress, infections and can be avoided in most cases by taking a very effective treatment over the long term. The chronic inflammation linked to the disease can lead after several years to a serious complication, AA amyloidosis, which corresponds to the deposition of a particular protein ** in certain organs such as the kidneys or the heart, the functioning of which may be impaired. which can lead in particular to kidney failure. This amyloidosis can be prevented by taking regular treatment for the disease.
* this means that to have the disease, it is necessary to have his 2 genes – the one coming from his mother and the one coming from his father – modified
** amyloid substance
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