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- Title
Indicators of Central Fever in the Neurologic Intensive Care Unit.
- Authors
Hocker, Sara E.; Lin Tian; Guangxi Li; Steckelberg, James M.; Mandrekar, Jay N.; Rabinstein, Alejandro A.
- Abstract
IMPORTANCE: Fever is common in critically ill neurologic patients. Knowledge of the indicators of central fever may allow greater antibiotic stewardship in this era of rapidly developing super-resistant microorganisms. OBJECTIVE: To develop a model to differentiate central from infectious fever in critically ill neurologic patients with fever of an undetermined cause. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Retrospective data collection from January 1, 2006, through December 31, 2010, at a 20-bed neurologic intensive care unit of a large teaching hospital. Consecutive patients 18 years and older admitted for 48 hours or longer with a core body temperature higher than 38.3°C on at least 1 measurement for 2 consecutive days. Patients with alternative identified causes of noninfectious fever were excluded. In total, 526 patients were included in the final analysis. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Percentage incidence and odds ratios of variables associated with central fever. Fever was classified as infectious if there was culture growth of a pathogenic species or documented clinical diagnosis of infection treated with antibiotics. Remaining patients were considered to have central fever. Continuous fever lasting longer than 6 hours for 2 or more consecutive days was considered persistent. RESULTS: Fever was central in 246 patients (46.8%). Patients with infectious fever were older (mean, 57.4 vs 53.5 years; P = .01) and had a longer length of stay in the neurologic intensive care unit (mean, 12.1 vs 8.8 days; P < .001). Central fever was more likely to occur within 72 hours of admission to the neurologic intensive care unit (76.4%vs 60.7%; P < .001) and tended to be persistent (26.4%vs 18.6%; P = .04). Blood transfusion (odds ratio [OR], 3.06; 95%CI, 1.63-5.76); absence of infiltrate on chest x-ray (3.02; 1.81-5.05); diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage, intraventricular hemorrhage, or tumor (6.33; 3.72-10.77); and onset of fever within 72 hours of hospital admission (2.20; 1.23-3.94) were independent predictors of central fever on multivariable analysis. The combination of negative cultures; absence of infiltrate on chest radiographs; diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage, intraventricular hemorrhage, or tumor; and onset of fever within 72 hours of admission predicted central fever with a probability of .90. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: We provide a reliable model to differentiate central fever from infectious fever in critically ill neurologic patients, allowing clinicians to select patients in whom antibioticsmay be safely discontinued despite ongoing fever.
- Publication
JAMA Neurology, 2013, Vol 70, Issue 12, p1499
- ISSN
2168-6149
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1001/jamaneurol.2013.4354