Familial Mediterranean fever in Ashkenazi Jews: the mild end of the clinical spectrum.

Objective: To characterize familial Mediterranean fever (FMF) in Ashkenazi patients, a Jewish subgroup in which FMF has rarely been described before.

Methods: A retrospective analysis, comparing demographic, clinical, and genetic measures of the cohort of Ashkenazi Jewish patients with FMF (n = 57), followed at the National Center for FMF in Israel, to age and sex matched patients of Iraqi Jewish (n = 62) and North African Jewish (NAJ; n = 61) origin.

Results: Age at disease onset and diagnosis was earlier in NAJ than among Ashkenazi and Iraqi patients.

Sludge ball, pseudolithiasis, cholelithiasis and choledocholithiasis from intrauterine life to 2 years: a 13-year follow-up.

Objective: Evaluation and follow-up of infants with cholelithiasis and pseudolithiasis in a pediatric ward.

Patients & Methods: Prospective study from April 1990 to October 2003 identified hospitalized infants younger than 2 years with ultrasonographic findings of cholelithiasis, choledocholithiasis or pseudolithiasis. Associated abnormalities or contributory factors were recorded and patients were followed for from 6 months to 13 years (mean, 4 years).