Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an inherited disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of fever accompanied by sterile peritonitis, arthritis, and pleuritis. Many mutations in the MEFV gene have been identified as causing FMF. However, accompanying epidemiological information remains quite scarce except in some Mediterranean countries, and the degree of penetrance has been a subject of...

The effects of deep inspiration upon expiratory flow rates and response to inhaled metaproterenol were studied in normal and asthmatic subjects using partial (PEFV) and maximal (MEFV) expiratory flow volume curves. Routine pulmonary function tests and specific conductance were also measured. Prior to administration of metaproterenol, 18 of 24 normal subjects and 11 of 24 asthmatic subjects (p 0...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), inherited in an autosomal recessive manner, is a systemic auto-inflammatory disorder characterized by recurrent attacks of fever with peritonitis, pleuritis, synovitis and erysipeloid rash. The marenostrin-encoding fever (MEFV) gene, located on chromosome 16p13.3, is the only gene in which mutations are currently known to cause FMF. To correlate specific geno...

Introduction Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is considered a rare disease in Japan. Our institution began screening for MEFV gene mutations in patients with periodic fever in 2005. Among the 18 patients screened, we have identified 11 (56.5%) FMF patients with heterozygous M694I/E148Q mutations. Among the other 7 patients, no pathogenic mutations were detected by the direct sequencing of all...

BACKGROUND Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease characterized by recurrent attacks of fever with serosal inflammation. FMF gene (MEFV) mutations have been identified primarily in patients from Mediterranean populations. Although several clinical cases have been reported in Japan, there have been few reports to date on mutation analysis. We studied FMF patients an...

OBJECTIVE To investigate the expression of the familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) gene (MEFV) in human synovial fibroblasts. METHODS MEFV messenger RNA in synovial fibroblasts, chondrocytes, and peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) was analyzed by semiquantitative and real-time polymerase chain reaction and ribonuclease protection assay. The subcellular localization of pyrin, the MEFV product, ...

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessively inherited inflammatory disease that primarily affects Jews, Armenians, Turks, and Arabs. It is characterised by recurrent self limited attacks of fever accompanied by inflammation of the peritoneum, synovium, and pleura. The gene responsible for FMF (MEFV) has been cloned recently on the short arm of chromosome 16 and more than 20 m...

F amilial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterised by recurrent episodes of fever and serosal inflammation, which is common in Armenian, Turkish, Arab, and Sephardic Jewish populations. For many years, its diagnosis was one of exclusion, based solely on clinical criteria. However, this difficult situation was changed in 1997 by the identification of the causati...

BACKGROUND/AIMS Chronic arthritis of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) involves weight-bearing joints and can occur in patients without a history of acute attack. Our aim was to investigate a possible causal relationship between FMF and osteoarthritis in a population in which FMF is quite common. METHODS Patients with late stage primary osteoarthritis were enrolled, and five MEFV gene mutati...