Department of Internal Medicine F serves the general population at the Sheba Medical Center and treats patients in the areas of rheumatic diseases, multi-system diseases, Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), Amyloidosis and heart disease. We also house the FMF Institute and conduct basic and clinical research on Immunology, FMF, and Amyloidosis.
We have treated a 40-year-old female patient who suffered from monthly episodes of severe abdominal pain accompanied by fever since the age of 20. An appendectomy was performed during one of these attacks, but the appendix appeared normal, and yet the attacks continued. Over the years, urinary tract infections and / or bladder infections, Peptic Ulcer and viral disease were suggested erroneously as the cause of her disease, until we examined her and the diagnosis of FMF was reached. Colchicine treatment was advised, and now the patient has been free of attacks for 2 years. (This case reflects the regrettable fact that the mean diagnosis delay of FMF is about 10 years, and that diagnostic mistakes and futile operations are common).
The FMF Institute
Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF) is a genetic disease affecting Jews of all ethnic backgrounds, but particularly those of North African and Iraqi extraction. The rate of carriers of the defective gene (having one mutation) is unbelievably high, ranging from 1 out of 4 individuals in non-Ashkenazi Jews, to 1 out of 15 in the Ashkenazi population. According to this prevalence and validated by population screens, the population of genetically affected (bearing 2 mutations) individuals is around 50,000. Yet, only 10,000 individuals with a clinically overt disease are known.
The FMF Institute has been serving the FMF population since the 1950s and is recognized worldwide for its tremendous contribution to the study of the disease. The Institute has a registry of over 8,000 patients (out of a potential population of 10,000 patients) and is recognized as the National Center of FMF. There are an estimated 40,000 FMF patients who are genetically positive but have not been screened.
The FMF Institute has its own patients association with a mission to fundraise, improve FMF status in governmental facilities and educate patients' families and physicians about the disease.
The Institute has its own laboratory facility for genetic diagnosis of FMF and other periodic fever diseases (HIDS, TRAPS, FCIU, MWS, CINCA), and genetic and proteinaceous diagnosis of Amyloidosis.
FMF is one of the most frequent genetic diseases in Israel and research is conducted on FMF in many Sheba Medical Center departments. In 1997, a team of researchers and physicians from Sheba's Heller Institute cloned the gene responsible for one of the most frequent genetic diseases in Israel - Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF). This discovery is considered an international breakthrough in the understanding of this severe disease and its treatment modalities.
|
Department at a Glance |
| Number of Patients per Year - 3500 |
| Number of Beds - 38 |
|
Director - Prof. Avi Livneh
Prof. Avi Livneh, born in 1948, graduated from the Sackler School of Medicine at the Tel Aviv University in 1973. From 1985 – 1988 he worked as a Fellow in Rheumatology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
Prof. Livneh is an Associate Professor of Medicine since 1998 and has been the head of Department F Medicine since 2001.
Most of his research work concerns autoantibodies against a diversity of antigens. He acquired his knowledge in basic research in the Weizmann Institute of Science and at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In the last six years his main avenue of basic research is in Amyloidosis and genetic aspects of FMF. |
|
Staff -
Prof. Ilan Bank, M.D., Deputy Director
Prof. Pnina Langevitz, M.D., Director of Rheumatology
Dr. Arie Asman, M.D., Senior Physician (Cardiologist)
Dr. Nurit Zaks, M.D., Senior Physician (Rheumatology) |
| Address - The Charles Clore Hospitalization Tower, East Wing |
| E-mail - Avi.Livneh@sheba.health.gov.il |
| Tel - 972-3-530-2454 | |
