Familial Mediterranean Fever

I. Introduction The purpose of this communication is to describe a disease which we define as a heredofamilial syndrome of undetermined pathogenesis in persons of Mediterranean stock, becoming manifest as a rule in infancy or adolescence and characterized by short recurrent bouts of fever accompanied by pain in the abdomen or chest or one or multiple joints, singly or in various combinations. Sometimes erysipelas-like erythemata appear. A certain number of cases terminate fatally through supervening renal involvement. This is not a new disease, nor have we been the first to describe it. Typical examples may be found in literature, especially in French papers of the last decade.1-30Various names have been attached to the case reports, the best known of which are probably "benign paroxysmal peritonitis"4and "periodic disease."5Many of these papers include within their series cases which bear only a superficial resemblance, if any, to