Association of familial Mediterranean fever in Turkish children with inflammatory bowel disease

Aim: Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) carry similar clinical and biological properties. Both are characterized with chronic inflammation attacks and neutrophil migration and impaired apoptosis mechanism are present in the areas of damage in both conditions. In our study, we aimed to determine the frequency of association of FMF in patients with IBD, to compare the demographic, clinical, laboratory and treatment response properties in these patients with the ones in other IBD patients and to determine association of FMF especially in treatment-resistant patients. Material and Methods: Fifty-three patients who were being followed up with a diagnosis of IBD aged between 0 and 18 years were included in the study. The patient group included the patients who were diagnosed with IBD according to clinical, serological, endoscopic and histopathological criteria, who were being followed up and whose therapies were continuing. Genetic analysis in terms of MEFV gene mutations was performed in all patients with a diagnosis of IBD. Acute phase reactants, complete blood count, immunoglobulin levels, stool analysis, "perinuclear anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies" (pANCA) and "anti-Saccharomyces cerevisiae antibodies" (ASCA) were studied at the time of diagnosis. The diagnosis of FMF was made according to detailed history, physical examination findings, laboratory tests and the results of genetic analyses in terms of MEFV gene mutations in accordance with the criteria defined in 2009. Results: We found that FMF accompanied in 14 (26.4%) of the patients who had a diagnosis of IBD. 3 of these 14 patients in whom FMF accompanied were being followed up with a diagnosis of Crohn disease and 11 were being followed up with a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. All of these patients had MEFV gene mutation. These mutations included M694V (50%), K695R (21.4%), M680I (14.3%) and R202Q (14.3%) in order of frequency. When the laboratory data were compared between the patients who had a diagnosis of IBD alone and who had a diagnosis of IBD plus FMF, it was observed that the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) values were statistically significantly higher in the IBD+FMF group. Conclusions: FMF is a common condition in the Turkish population and M694V mutation is found most commonly. In our study, this status did not change in cases where FMF accompanied IBD, but K695R mutation was found more frequently compared to FMF alone. We think that it should be kept in mind that other inflammatory conditions including mainly FMF may accompany IBD, if a case of IBD does not have an expected course or is resistant to treatment.