Isolated Recurrent Pleuritis Revealing Familial Mediterranean Fever in Adulthood

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is a genetic autoinflammatory disease especially affecting populations of Mediterranean origin with an autosomal recessive inheritance. The cardinal manifestations consist of short febrile and painful attacks of peritonitis, arthritis and pleuritis developing during childhood. We report the case of a 26-year-old man of Tunisian descent who had febrile episodes of right-sided pleuritis without any extrathoracic complaints. Disappearance of attacks with one dose of colchicine (1 mg/day) strengthened the presumptive diagnosis of atypical FMF, which was further confirmed by genetic testing identifying the homozygous mutation M694I/M694I of the MEFV gene. Copyright (C) 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel