Clinical characteristics of 1 838 patients with fever of unknown origin

Abstract

Objective To understand the aetiology of 1 838 patients with fever of unknown origin (FUO) , so as to provide references for clinical diagnosis and treatment. Methods The clinical data of 1 838 hospitalized patients with FUO in the Affiliated Hospital of Xuzhou Medical University from January 2014 to February 2018 were retrospectively analyzed. The patients were divided into three groups of infectious diseases (1 256 cases) , non-infectious diseases (391 cases) and unidentified diagnosis (191 cases) . The characteristics of gender, age, days of hospitalization and prognosis were analyzed. Results The male to female ratio of FUO patients was 1:1.15, and the age were (49.01±19.72) years old. The differences of the gender and days of hospitalization had no statistically significance in three groups (P>0.05) . However, the difference of average ages had statistical significance (F=4.556, P<0.01) , and the age of tumor patients was (56.92±17.53) years old which was higher than that of other patients. In infectious disease group, bacterial infection was the most common cause, in which respiratory system infections were seen in 416 cases (22.63%) . In non-infectious disease group, connective tissue disease was the most common cause, in which adult Still disease was seen in 55 cases (2.99%) . Other diseases such as drug fever (2.01%) were also commonly seen in FUO patients. After a 3-month follow-up, 1 604 patients improved, 102 were cured and 7 died. Conclusions Infectious diseases such as respiratory system infection, and non-infectious diseases such as adult Still disease should be considered primarily for the diagnosis and treatment of FUO patients. Clinical manifestations, symptoms and laboratory indexes can be comprehensively analyzed to narrow the possible diagnosis range as much as possible. Key words: Fever of unknown origin; Etiology; Infection; Connective tissue diseases; Respiratory tract