Fever in a medical intensive care unit

Abstract

Objective: To determine the epidemiology of fever in a medical intensive care unit (ICU). Design: Period prevalence study. Setting: Medical ICU of a university-affiliated urban teaching hospital. Subjects: Sixty-eight consecutive patients with a medical admission diagnosis over a 2-month period in 2002. Interventions: None. Measurements and main results: Forty-eight patients (71%) experienced fever during their ICU stay that was of infectious origin in only 62% of the cases. Prolonged and high-grade fevers were usually due to infections. During the first 96 hours, infected patients had significant higher daily procalcitonin level compared with non-infected patients, whereas there was no difference in leukocyte count between the two groups. C-reactive protein levels were significantly different only at day 4. Conclusions: In medical ICU patients, fever is frequently seen and commonly due to non-infectious causes. Body temperature is an easily measurable parameter with a high level of sensitivity (97%) but ...