Diagnosing Mediterranean Disease
Mediterranean Disease is also referred to as Familial Mediterranean Fever, or FMV, and is a rare disorder affecting those of Mediterranean descent. Common groups affect are Arabs, Turks, Armenians, and many others. However Mediterranean Disease is a genetic disorder and as such, this disease is not exclusive to Mediterranean descent.
Diagnosing Mediterranean Disease can prove difficult, and to date there is no specific test that can detect Familial Mediterranean Fever. Your doctor will use your reported symptoms to rule out other disorders and diseases and will make a diagnosis based on a series of symptoms or combination of several factors. Genetic testing may also be performed if you wish to have children to determine if you will pass on this disease to your offspring.
To diagnose Mediterranean Disease, your doctor will first look for the common symptoms and signs associated with the disease. These include an abrupt and unexplained fever that can reach as high as 104 F. You may also be experiencing pain in your joints, chest, or abdomen, and for some men, their scrotum. Often these symptoms will improve on their own, but recur at a later time. If you have this combination of symptoms, your doctor may suspect Mediterranean Disease.
Family history will be an important part of the diagnostic process as well. If you have a family history of Mediterranean Disease, you will have a greater likelihood of receiving this diagnosis yourself due to the genetic nature of this disease.
Ethnicity will play a factor but not be a deciding factor in your diagnosis. This disease affects those with Mediterranean origin including Arabs, North Africans, Turks, Armenians, Sephardic Jews, and sometimes Italians and Greeks. However due to the fact that this condition has been found in other groups within the United States, ethnicity will not play a significant role in diagnosis.
A final step in diagnosis of Mediterranean Disease will be blood tests. It will be important to have blood work done during an attack, and your doctor will be looking for elevated markers that will indicate inflammation in your body.
Though it seems complex, the diagnosis of Mediterranean Disease is not complex, and can be accomplished in a simple doctor/patient interview with follow up blood work. Once diagnosis is confirmed, treatment can begin and you will experience relief of your symptoms rather quickly.