Evaluating fever of unknown origin definitions in a tertiary care setting: Implications for diagnostic criteria revision

Table 1 Various fever of unknown origin definitions (A-H) used in the study to do etiological classification

Definition	Days of undiagnosis	Temperature	Days of hospitalization
A	3-21	99.1 °F-100.9 °F	3-7
B	3-21	99.1 °F-100.9 °F	> 7
C	3-21	>/= 101 °F	3-7
D	3-21	>/= 101 °F	> 7
E	> 21	99.1 °F-100.9 °F	3-7
F	> 21	99.1 °F-100.9 °F	> 7
G	> 21	>/= 101 °F	3-7
H	> 21	>/= 101 °F	> 7

Table 2 Distribution of the participants in terms of fever of unknown definition'

Definition	Frequency	Percentage (%)	95%CI (%)
A	49	21.5	16.5-27.5
B	93	40.8	34.4-47.5
C	28	12.3	8.5-17.4
D	44	19.3	14.5-25.1
E	1	0.4	0.0-2.8
F	7	3.1	1.4-6.5
G	1	0.4	0.0-2.8
H	5	2.2	0.8-5.3

Table 3 Association between fever of unknown definition and their outcomes, n (%)

Outcome	Definition									χ² test
	A	B	C	D	E	F	G	H	Total	χ²	P value
Alive	37 (75.5)	83 (89.2)	23 (82.1)	40 (90.9)	0 (0.0)	7 (100.0)	1 (100.0)	5 (100.0)	196 (86.0)	27.937	0.142
Unstable vital	4 (8.2)	3 (3.2)	1 (3.6)	1 (2.3)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	9 (3.9)
Poor prognosis	0 (0.0)	2 (2.2)	0 (0.0)	2 (4.5)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	4 (1.8)
Death	8 (16.3)	5 (5.4)	4 (14.3)	1 (2.3)	1 (100)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	0 (0.0)	19 (8.3)
Total	49 (100.0)	93 (100.0)	28 (100.0)	44 (100.0)	1 (100.0)	7 (100.0)	1 (100.0)	5 (100.0)	228 (100.0)