Ozen et al reported the FMF50, which is a set of criteria for determining if a patient with Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is responding to therapy. The authors are from multiple institutions in Turkey.
Patient selection: familial Mediterranean Fever, compliant with therapeutic regimen
Measurements after 3-6 months of treatment:
(1) percent change in the frequency of attacks
(2) percent change in the duration of attacks
(3) percent change in patient's/parent's global assessment of disease severity on 10 cm VAS
(4) percent change in physician's global assessment of disease severity on 10 cm VAS scale
(5) percent change in arthritis attacks
(6) percent change in serum inflammatory marker (CRP, ESR, serum amyloid A)
where:
• There probably needs to be a minimum value at baseline to be valid. For example, a VAS score of 1 would be hard to improve on. Similarly, 1 attack per month would be hard to assess.
• The implementation will use somewhat arbitrary baseline cutoffs.
Criteria for response to therapy in a complaint patient:
(1) >= 5 domains show a > 50% improvement
(2) no domains show worsening
