RT Journal
A1 Priest RJ, Nixon RK
T1 FAmilial recurring polyserositis
JF Journal of the American Medical Association
JO Journal of the American Medical Association
YR 1959
FD August 22
VO 170
IS 17
SP 2131
OP 2131
DO 10.1001/jama.1959.03010170093022
UL http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1959.03010170093022
AB To the Editor:— 
    The editorial in The Journal, June 6, 1959, page 678, entitled "Is Familial Periodic Disease a Nosological Entity?," calls attention to a remarkable disease largely limited to persons of the Armenian, Syrian, or Jewish ethnic groups. In support of this concept of a "nosological entity" we should like to bring attention to our study of 20 such patients, presented before the annual session of the American College of Physicians, April 21, 1959. We have added to the nomenclature of the disease "familial recurring polyserositis." The nomenclature of the disease has had interesting historical deviations. First called a "paroxysmal syndrome" by Janeway and Mosenthal in 1908, it was termed "benign paroxysmal peritonitis" by Siegal in 1945. Reimann included it in his collection of periodic diseases and added "periodic abdominalgia" or "periodic peritonitis."French authors have objected to the connotation of "periodic," and Siguier in 1953 called the disease