Genome-wide association study in Turkish and Iranian populations identify rare familial Mediterranean fever gene (MEFV) polymorphisms associated with ankylosing spondylitis.
Moreover, M694V is significantly associated with a</span> higher level of erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and C-reactive protein (CRP) in AS patients.
Therefore, association of M694V with ankylosing spondylitis can be recognized as a geographic region-specific risk factor affecting a common inflammatory pathway in the disease pathogenesis.
M694V was the only variant that was significantly more common in the AS group than in the combined or individual control groups (P = 0.026 for AS patients versus healthy controls, P = 0.046 for AS patients versus RA patient controls, and P = 0.008 for AS patients versus healthy and RA patient control groups).