Periodic meningitis and familial Mediterranean fever.

A 33-year-old man had had, since he was 20 years old, recurrent attacks of fever, rash, and aseptic lymphocytic meningitis. A nephrotic syndrome developed that was found, on renal biopsy, to be due to amyloid deposit. After colchicine therapy, no further recurrence of fever and meningitis was observed. These findings suggest that aseptic periodic meningitis (Mollaret's syndrome) should be considered as an unusual manifestation of familial Mediterranean fever.