Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is the most frequent hereditary inflammatory disease characterized by self-limited recurrent attacks of fever and serositis. It is transmitted in an autosomal recessive pattern and affects certain ethnic groups mainly Jews, Turks, Arabs, and Armenians. FMF is caused by mutations in MEFV gene, which encodes pyrin. This protein is expressed mainly in myeloid/monocytic cells and modulates IL-1beta processing, NF-kappaB activation, and apoptosis. A mutated pyrin probably results in uncontrolled inflammation. The most devastating complication of FMF is amyloidosis, leading to chronic renal failure. M694V homozygocity, male gender and the alpha/alpha genotype of serum amyloid A1 gene are the currently established risk factors for development of amyloidosis. Daily colchicine is the mainstay of the therapy for the disease, resulting in complete remission or marked reduction in the frequency and duration of attacks in most patients. It is also effective in preventing and arresting renal amyloidosis.

Takayasu arteritis is a rare inflammatory disease of large arteries. The etiology of Takayasu arteritis remains poorly understood, but genetic contribution to the disease pathogenesis is supported by the genetic association with HLA-B*52. We genotyped ~200,000 genetic variants in two ethnically divergent Takayasu arteritis cohorts from Turkey and North America by using a custom-designed genotyping platform (Immunochip). Additional genetic variants and the classical HLA alleles were imputed and analyzed. We identified and confirmed two independent susceptibility loci within the HLA region (r(2) < 0.2): HLA-B/MICA (rs12524487, OR = 3.29, p = 5.57 × 10(-16)) and HLA-DQB1/HLA-DRB1 (rs113452171, OR = 2.34, p = 3.74 × 10(-9); and rs189754752, OR = 2.47, p = 4.22 × 10(-9)). In addition, we identified and confirmed a genetic association between Takayasu arteritis and the FCGR2A/FCGR3A locus on chromosome 1 (rs10919543, OR = 1.81, p = 5.89 × 10(-12)). The risk allele in this locus results in increased mRNA expression of FCGR2A. We also established the genetic association between IL12B and Takayasu arteritis (rs56167332, OR = 1.54, p = 2.18 × 10(-8)).

Familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) is an autosomal recessive disease that is prevalent among eastern Mediterranean populations, mainly non-Ashkenazi Jews, Armenians, Turks, and Arabs. Since a large proportion of all the FMF patients in the world live in Turkey, the Turkish FMF Study Group (FMF-TR) was founded to develop a patient registry database and analyze demographic, clinical, and genetic features. The cohort was composed of 2838 patients (mean age, 23.0 +/- 13.33 yr; range, 2-87 yr), with a male:female ratio of 1.2:1. There was a mean period of 6.9 +/- 7.65 years from disease onset to diagnosis; the period was about 2 years shorter for each decade since 1981. Ninety-four percent of patients were living in the central-western parts of the country; however, their familial origins (70% from the central-eastern and Black Sea regions) reflected not only the ongoing east to west migration, but also the historical roots of FMF in Turkey. Patients' clinical features included peritonitis (93.7%), fever (92.5%), arthritis (47.4%), pleuritis (31.2%), myalgia (39.6%), and erysipelas-like erythema (20.9%). Arthritis, arthralgia, myalgia, and erysipelas-like erythema were significantly more frequent (p < 0.001) among patients with disease onset before the age of 18 years. Genetic analysis of 1090 patients revealed that M694V was the most frequent mutation (51.4%), followed by M680I (14.4%) and V726A (8.6%). Patients with the M694V/M694V genotype were found to have an earlier age of onset and higher frequencies of arthritis and arthralgia compared with the other groups (both p < 0.001). In contrast to other reported studies, there was no correlation between amyloidosis and M694V homozygosity in this cohort. However, amyloidosis was still remarkably frequent in our patients (12.9%), and it was prevalent (27.8%) even among the 18 patients with a disease onset after age 40 years. Twenty-two patients (0.8%) had nonamyloid glomerular diseases. The high prevalence of vasculitides (0.9% for polyarteritis nodosa and 2.7% for Henoch-Schonlein purpura) and high frequency of pericarditis (1.4%) were striking findings in the cohort. Phenotype II cases (those patients with amyloidosis as the presenting or only manifestation of disease) were rare (0.3% or less). There was a high rate of a past diagnosis of acute rheumatic fever, which suggested a possible misdiagnosis in children with FMF presenting with recurrent arthritis. To our knowledge, this is the largest series of patients with FMF reported from 1 country. We describe the features of the disease in the Turkish population and show that amyloidosis is still a substantial problem.

No abstract

This study demonstrates impairment of endothelial function in ankylosing spondylitis.

Objective Takayasu’s arteritis is a rare large vessel vasculitis with incompletely understood etiology. We performed the first unbiased genome-wide association study (GWAS) in Takayasu’s arteritis. Methods Two independent Takayasu’s arteritis cohorts from Turkey and North America were included in our study. The Turkish cohort consisted of 559 patients and 489 controls, and the North American cohort consisted of 134 European-derived patients and 1,047 controls. Genotyping was performed using the Omni1-Quad and Omni2.5 genotyping arrays. Genotyping data were subjected to rigorous quality control measures and subsequently analyzed to discover genetic susceptibility loci for Takayasu’s arteritis. Results We identified genetic susceptibility loci for Takayasu’s arteritis with a genome-wide level of significance in IL6 (rs2069837, OR= 2.07, P= 6.70×10−9), RPS9/LILRB3 (rs11666543, OR= 1.65, P= 2.34×10−8), and an intergenic locus on chromosome 21q22 (rs2836878, OR= 1.79, P= 3.62×10−10). The genetic susceptibility locus in RPS9/LILRB3 is located within the leukocyte receptor complex (LRC) gene cluster on chromosome 19q13.4, and the disease risk variant in this locus correlates with reduced expression of multiple genes including the inhibitory leukocyte immunoglobulin-like receptor gene LILRB3 (P= 2.29×10−8). In addition, we identified candidate susceptibility genes with suggestive levels of association (P <1×10−5) including PCSK5, LILRA3, PPM1G/NRBP1, and PTK2B in Takayasu’s arteritis. Conclusion This study identified novel genetic susceptibility loci for Takayasu’s arteritis and uncovered potentially important aspects in the pathophysiology of this form of vasculitis.

During follow-up, most TA patients showed no clinical activity with DEI-Tak. Although the agreement between Kerr's criteria and DEI.Tak seemed very good, using Kerr's criteria instead of DEI.Tak increased the consistency with PGA, which could be explained by the influence of imaging data and acute-phase reactant levels on the physician's decisions.

These results indicate the need to increase awareness of the concept of axial spondyloarthritis among specialists who might be the first physicians consulted by patients with AS for their back pain. There is also a need to develop strategies for early referral of such patients to rheumatologists.