Abstract

FUENTES-MARQUEZ, Laura; IZQUIERDO-PEREZ, Mildreth; MAESTRE-SERRANO, Ronald  and  BARRERA-GUARIN, Carlos. Fever of unknown origin as manifestation of systemic lupus erythematosus. Med. interna Méx. [online]. 2018, vol.34, n.5, pp.792-796. ISSN 0186-4866.  https://doi.org/10.24245/mim.v34i5.1875.

Fever of unknown origin is defined as a clinical spectrum of patients who consulted for presenting fever as a single or predominant manifestation, greater or equal to 38.3ºC, more than 3 weeks of evolution, and in whom clinical evaluation results and initial paraclinical studies have not identified its cause. Five categories group the causes of fever of unknown origin which include infectious, neoplastic, inflammatory non-infectious, miscellaneous and of unknown origin. Systemic lupus erythematosus is an autoimmune disease that affects connective tissue and has a wide range of clinical manifestations, among which the presence of polyarthritis, mucocutaneous ulcers and malar erythema stand out at the beginning; systemic lupus erythematosus is one of the non-infectious inflammatory causes of fever of unknown origin. A clinical case report is made, of a 51-year-old woman, who consulted to Internal Medicine, with a clinical picture of 30 days of evolution, with intermittent fever, daily and quantified between 38.5 and 39ºC, associated with significant weight loss; to which it was diagnosed by clinical and paraclinical findings systemic lupus erythematosus, treated with hydroxychloroquine and prednisolone, achieving disappearance of the fever and improvement of the general state of the patient.

Keywords : Fever of unknown origin; Systemic lupus erythematosus.