Evaluation of pericardial involvoment and cardiac functions in pati̇ents with familial mediterranean fever

Familial mediterrean fever (FMF) is an autoinflammatory disease associated with accompanied by fever recurrent abdominal pain, joint pain and chest pain. If cardiovascular involvement develops secondary to chronic inflammation, it can be negative effective on mortality and morbidity. The this study was performed to determine the cardiac functions and pericardial involvement in patients with FMF. It is a prospective study including 99 patients with FMF and 24 controls. The mean age of the patients with FMF was 9.6 ± 3.7. It was found that there had been no important changes in diastolic and systolic functions in both the attack period and also when compared with the control group. However the pericardial thickness was significantly more in patients with FMF during the attack period (p<0.05). Furthermore although the diagnosis of pericarditis was not done in any patient, the pericardial thickness was found to be more in patients admitted with the complaints of chest pain. When the results were evaluated, the pericardial thickening was observed more especially in patients during the attack period and this supports the finding that there is pericardial involvement and subclinical inflammation even if it is asymptomatic. In conclusion it is necessary to follow up cardiac functions including pericardium in long term follow up of the patients with FMF by reason of subclinical inflammation could affect pericardium as it affects all serosa. Key words: Familial Mediterrean fever, cardiac functions, pericardial involvement