The effect of colchicine on physical growth in children wıth familial mediterranean fever

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease, characterized by recurrent, self-limited attacks of fever with serositis involving the peritoneum, pleura, and joints. There is very scarce information on physical growth of affected children. The aim of this study was to determine whether there is significant improvement in growth parameters in FMF patients after colchicine treatment. Patient files were retrospectively evaluated and patients that used colchicine for more than 1 year were included in the study. Demographic features, clinical findings before and after colchicine therapy, duration and dosage of therapy, weight, height, parentally adjusted height, and body mass index before and after colchicine therapy were noted and transformed into standard deviation scores (SDS). The study group consisted of 50 FMF (25 male and 25 female) patients. Median age at the time of diagnosis was 6.5 years. Median follow-up period was 3.6 (1–12.5) years. Mean height SDS increased from −0.19 ± 1.01 to 0.13 ± 0.99 (p = 0.026), and mean parentally adjusted height increased from −0.18 ± 1.23 to 0.13 ± 1.24 (p = 0.027), and both of them were found to be statistically significant. Mean body mass index SDS increased from −0.61 ± 1.32 to −0.32 ± 1.33, but this improvement was statistically insignificant (p = 0.18). In this study, we found that colchicine significantly improved height development in FMF patients.