Fever of unknown origin : infectious etiology and diagnosis principles
Duca, E.
Revista Medico-Chirurgicala a Societatii de Medici Si Naturalisti Din Iasi 105(3): 481-485
2001
ISSN/ISBN: 0048-7848 PMID: 12092177 Document Number: 532046
The paper has 3 parts: definitions, causes and diagnosis principles in prolonged fevers of infections etiology. The non infections causes of FUO are only mentioned. The infections causes are presented as: Bacteria, Viruses, Mycetes and Protozoa. The part regarding the etiological diagnosis firstly includes data about the microbiological diagnosis methods and samples in four steps: a) routine samples done for every febrile patient in a general hospital; b) all the accessible samples and c) samples obtained by invasive procedures (needle biopsies and open biopsies). When all of these had negative results in microbiological tests, a last possibility is adopted: exploratory laparatomy, eventually by sampling some specimens. Finally, conditions of obtaining interpretable serological tests are listed.