[Muscular manifestations in periodic disease]

Between 1976 and 1983, the authors studied 50 new patients affected with periodic disease. 16 of them-mean age: 29-presented muscular manifestations. They may be grouped into two clinical aspects: muscular pain and contractures. The authors consider that these symptoms, first described in 1945, are an inherent part of the clinical picture of the disease. They discuss their relationship with periarteritis nodosa and remind the fact that their pathogenesis remains unknown.