Periodic Fever, Aphthous stomatitis, Pharyngitis and cervical Adenitis (PFAPA) is one of the most common, least explored periodic fever syndrome in childhood. This study aims to investigate whether a single dose of an interleukin beta (IL-1) antagonist, Canakinumab will be able to abort PFAPA flares in patients who experience a flare in an average of 2 weeks or less. This will be a single arm open label pilot study. 10 patients will be recruited from 1 center (Pediatric rheumatology unit -Schneider children's medical center of Israel). Patients in ages 2-10 years old who are diagnosed with PFAPA according to clinical criteria at least 3 months prior to enrollment and who are under regular care for this disease (single dose of glucocorticoids during flare) and who suffer from more than 4 PFAPA flares for the last 2 months, will be screened for this study. In the second documented flare, patients will be enrolled to receive a single dose of subcutaneous (SC) Canakinumab 4 mg/kg. The primary outcome is defined as - 50% reduction in PFAPA flares for the next 2 consecutive months as reported by the patient (use of diary) and documented by the patient primary care physician and/ or the researcher in a monthly follow up visits. Secondary outcome measure are define as time to flare (days) and Parent/patient quality of life assessment measured by 100mm visual analog scale (VAS).
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Change in average number of flares - documented by the use of diary
Timeframe: baseline (canakinumab administration) and 2 months after baseline