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Introduction: Fever of unknown origin is first defined in 1961 as a temperature higher than 38.3°C lasting longer than 3 weeks, with a diagnosis that remains uncertain after 1 week of investigation. In this study, it’s aimed to evaluate etiology of fever of unknown origin cases hospitalized in department of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology. Patients and Methods: Fifty three fever of unknown origin cases hospitalized at our department between January 2002-August 2007 were evaluated retrospectively. Fever of unknown origin was diagnosed according to the criteria described by Petersdorf and Beeson. Patients with a history of immunosuppressive disease and nosocomial fever were excluded. Results: Median days with fever was 15.8 days (20-160 days), median days for diagnosis was 4.8 days (3-120 days). Seventeen (32.1%), 10 (18.9%) and 5 (9.4%) of the 53 cases were diagnosed as infection, collagen vascular disease and malignancy respectively. Eight (15.1%) of all cases were diagnosed as other diseases such as thyroiditis, pheochromocytoma, ulcerative collitis, and familial mediterrenean fever. Origins of the fever was not defined for 13 (24.5%) of the patients. Fever decreased spontaneously in 61.5% of undiagnosed patients at follow up. Invasive procedures were performed at 20.8% of whole cases. Conclusion: As a result infectious diseases are the leading causes of fever of unknown origin. For diagnosis routine tests should be performed first and then if necessary, more complicated or invasive tests may be performed. Endemic, regional infectious diseases should be considered primarily. |
