A disease that should be thought in the differential diagnosis of pneumonia: FMF

Abstract

One of the diseases that is rarely thought in the differential diagnosis of pneumonia is Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF). The 30-year-old female patient was admitted to our hospital with fever, cough, dyspnea and chest pain. The patient was hospitalized as group 3B pneumonia according to Turkish Thoracic Society Pneumonia Guideline, as this group of patients have both risk factors and modifying factors for community-acquired pneumonia and have to be treated in hospital without the need of intensive care unit. (It can be classified as class III according to Fine Scoring System.) Fever continued despite the antibiotherapy and there was not an origin of infection with our physical and radiological examinations; also no bacteria were found in the urine, blood and sputum cultures. When we investigated the fever of the patient, we have learnt that she had attacks of fever many times similarly, and when her fever occurred, she had chest and abdominal pain periodically. We started to think about FMF as the diagnosis and after genetic examinations, a mutation has been found in MEFV gene. The patient's diagnosis has been established as FMF. FMF should be thought in the differential diagnosis of pneumonia especially in Mediterranean society, like Turkey.