Fever in a hospitalized patient
From IDWiki
Background
Definition
- Core temperature >38.3ºC
Pathophysiology
- Pyrogenic fever is caused by endogenous (IL-1, IL-6, TNF-alpha) or exogenous (from a microbe) pyrogen compounds
- Either direct action or cytokine production that stimulates the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT) in the hypothalamus
- Neurogenic fever
- Decoupling of oxidative phosphorylation, as in drug-induced fever
Differential Diagnosis
- Infectious
- Non-infectious
- Inflammatory diseases
- Drug-induced, including ß-lactam antibiotics, sulphonamides, antipsychotics, propofol
- Traumatic brain injury or ischemic brain injury
- Endocrine fever
