Yalcinkaya et al developed criteria for the diagnosis of familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in children. The authors are from Anakara University, Hacettepe University, Children's Hospital Ankara, and Istanbul University in Turkey.
Patient selection: child in a region of high prevalence
Episodes:
(1) have a duration 6 to 72 hours
(2) are recurrent (>= 3 attacks)
Features during an episode:
(1) fever (axillary temperature > 38°C)
(2) abdominal pain
(3) chest pain
(4) arthritis
A final feature (independent of an episode) is a family history of FMF.
A diagnosis of FMF can be made if >= 2 of the symptoms are present. This has a sensitivity of 87% and specificity of 94%. The positive predictive value is 94% and negative predictive value 85%.
The symptoms can also be included in a logistic regression equation.
X =
= (1.99 * (1 if fever present, else 0)) + (2.09 * (1 if abdominal pain present, else 0)) + (1.49 * (1 if chest pain present, else 0)) + (1.35 * (1 if arthritis present, else 0)) + (3.36 * (1 if family history, else 0)) - 2.55
probability of FMF =
= 1 / (1 + EXP((-1) * X))
