[Familial Mediterranean fever: report of a case]. / La febbre mediterranea familiare: descrizione di un caso.

Familial Mediterranean fever is an autosomal recessive hereditary disease characterised by recurrent fever, poliserositis, chest and/or abdominal pain. Up to date diagnosis is based on clinical symptoms, familial anamnesis and response to colchicine. It is an inflammatory reaction affecting serosal tissues but until recently different hypotheses have been suggested to explain the greatly increased chemotactic activity of the polymorfonuclear leucocytes. Identification of the function of the MEFV gene on chromosome 16 and its protein allows us to understand the pathogenesis of familial Mediterranean fever as well as provides a new diagnostic test and therapeutic measures. We describe a case of an young patient and review the literature.

[Primary pneumococcal peritonitis: description of a case and review of the literature]. / La peritonite primitiva da pneumococco: descrizione di un caso e revisione della letteratura.

Streptococcus pneumoniae causes lobar pneumonitis but primary peritonitis can occur in cyrrotic adults as well as in children affected by nephrosis and immunopathies. In young females peritonitis can be the consequence of infection localized at genital organs. Pneumococcal sepsis is becoming rare with the antibiotic era but resistance to penicillin is actually frequent and is becoming a problem for elderly. We report a case of a young woman affected by spontaneous primary peritonitis and pneumococcal sepsis. The prevalent symptoms were gastrointestinal: diarrhea and emesis. No infectious foci could be detected on imaging studies and during surgery.