Basics

Download EPUB

Does this content have "Advanced Reading"?

Yes

What are they?

Points To Remember About Autoinflammatory Diseases

Autoinflammatory diseases refer to problems with the immune system, which usually fights off viruses, bacteria, and infection. It results when your immune cells attack your body by mistake.

Autoinflammatory diseases can cause fever, rash, swelling of joints and other tissues, and serious buildup of a blood protein in organs.

In most cases, your doctor will prescribe medications to reduce pain and swelling or that act on the immune system.

What are autoinflammatory diseases?

Autoinflammatory diseases refer to problems with the immune system, which usually fights off viruses, bacteria, and infection. The problem causes your immune cells to attack your body by mistake. This can cause swelling that produces fever, rash, joint swelling, or serious buildup of a blood protein in your organs.

What are the types?

What are the types of autoinflammatory diseases?

Some examples of autoinflammatory disease and their symptoms include:

Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), which can cause:

Fever that comes and goes.

Stomach pain.

Arthritis.

Chest pain.

Skin rashes.

Neonatal Onset Multisystem Inflammatory Disease (NOMID) occurs in children during the first six weeks in life. It can cause:

Rash.

Fever.

Swelling in the lining of the brain.

Joint damage.

Vision loss.

Hearing loss.

Mental retardation.

Tumor Necrosis Factor Receptor-Associated Periodic Syndrome (TRAPS) is associated with:

High fevers.

Pain in the stomach, chest, or joints.

Skin rash.

Swelling in or around the eyes.

Deficiency of the Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist (DIRA) can cause the following serious conditions in children:

Swelling of bone tissue.

Bone pain and deformity.

Swelling of the tissues around the bones.

Skin rash that can cover most of the body.

Behçet’s disease can cause the following symptoms:

Mouth or genital sores.

Redness and swelling in the eyes.

Arthritis.

Skin problems.

Swelling of the digestive system, brain, and spinal cord.

Chronic Atypical Neutrophilic Dermatosis With Lipodystrophy and Elevated Temperature (CANDLE) can include the following symptoms, which generally develop during the first year of life:

Recurrent fevers.

Purple or red spots on the skin caused by burst blood vessels (purpura).

Joint pain.

Permanent shortening of a muscle or joint (contracture).

Developmental delay.

Facial changes, including a loss of fat on the face, and swollen lips and eyelids.

What causes them?

What causes autoinflammatory diseases?

Autoinflammatory diseases are typically caused by changes in certain genes. This causes problems with proteins that are important in specific body functions. For some diseases, the cause is unknown.

How are they treated?

How are autoinflammatory diseases treated?

Treatments for autoinflammatory diseases can involve medications that:

Reduce swelling and pain.

Act on the immune system.

For More Info

For more info

U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Toll free: 888-INFO-FDA (888-463-6332)
Website: https://www.fda.gov

Drugs@FDA at https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cder/daf. Drugs@FDA is a searchable catalog of FDA-approved drug products.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Website: https://www.cdc.gov/nchs

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
Website: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/diseases-conditions/autoinflammatory-diseases

American Autoinflammatory Related Diseases Association (AARDA)
Website: https://www.aarda.org

If you need more information about available resources in your language or other languages, please visit our webpages below or contact the NIAMS Information Clearinghouse at NIAMSInfo@mail.nih.gov.

Asian Language Health Information

Spanish Language Health Information

Join a Clinical Trial

Find a Clinical Trial

Related Information

¿Qué es el síndrome de Behçet?

View/Download/Order Publications

Download this topic as a PDF

Download this topic as an EPUB

Behçet's Disease, Questions and Answers about