Familial Mediterranean Fever Patients may have Unmet Needs for the Treatments of Exertional Leg Pain and Enthesitis

Introduction: Exertional leg pain (ELP) and enthesitis are musculoskeletal findings in familial Mediterranean fever (FMF). They are not accepted as principal treatment targets. In this study, we assessed the effectiveness of treatments on ELP and enthesitis.

Material and methods: We have included 218 FMF patients to the study. We retrospectively compared the FMF attacks' frequency, duration and intensity (FMF attack VAS score) and levels of ELP VAS and enthesitis VAS scores between pre-treatment stage and while patients were on treatment at the last visit.

Results: Forty-nine (22.5%) and 52 (23.9%) of the patients had enthesitis and ELP respectively. All patients were on colchicine treatment. Serositis attacks respond the treatments significantly. Moreover, both ELP VAS scores (p=0.002) and enthesis VAS scores (p=0.17) were improved with treatment. But only improvement in ELP VAS scores was significant.

Conclusion: FMF treatments had favourable effect on ELP and enthesitis in FMF patients. However, the response rates would be inadequate. Therefore, there would be unmet need for treatment of both conditions.