Pneumonia in a patient with familial Mediterranean fever successfully treated with anakinra—case report and review

Abstract

We report the case of a 35-years-old renal transplant patient known to have familial Mediterranean fever with serum amyloid A (SAA)-amyloidosis, who presented with his second episode of bilateral pneumonia. As antimicrobials failed to control the first episode of pneumonia and all studies done were non-contributory, we attributed the condition to the highly active Mediterranean fever presumably resistant to colchicine and treated the patient with the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist anakinra: the patient substantially improved by clinical symptoms, chemistry and radiological evidence within no more than 2 days and was discharged in good health after 4 days.