What is "familial mediterranean fever"

n. (context pathology English) a hereditary inflammatory disorder, characterized by recurrent fever, that affects groups of people originating from around the Mediterranean Sea, including Armenians, Sephardi Jews, Greeks, and Arabs

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF), also known as Armenian disease, is a hereditary inflammatory disorder. FMF is an autoinflammatory disease caused by mutations in MEFV, a gene which encodes a 781–amino acid protein denoted pyrin. While all ethnic groups are susceptible to FMF, it "usually occurs in people of Mediterranean origin—including Sephardic Jews, Arabs, Greeks, Italians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and Turks."

The disorder has been given various names including familial paroxysmal polyserositis, periodic peritonitis, recurrent polyserositis, benign paroxysmal peritonitis, periodic disease or periodic fever, Reimann periodic disease or Reimann's syndrome, Siegal-Cattan-Mamou disease, and Wolff periodic disease. Note that "periodic fever" can also refer to any of the periodic fever syndromes.