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Causes of low-grade fever

 
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
 
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Every person knows that if the thermometer shows elevated temperature indicators, therefore, the inflammatory process in the human body proceeds. It turns out that this is not entirely true, and a high temperature can cause not only inflammation, the causes of subfebrile temperature can have a completely different genesis.

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Causes of low-grade fever in women

The woman's organism is a rather complex structure of various interrelations. Throughout her life her body grows, develops, certain transformations take place. There is a change and a hormonal background. The reasons for subfebrile temperature in women are different, some of them are the same for both women and men, but, naturally, there are also individual ones.

  • Having reached sexual maturity, the balance of hormones can vary depending on the phase of the menstrual cycle. Therefore, it is quite normal that the temperature indicators can rise just before menstruation.
  • Period of pregnancy. There may be temperature fluctuations even in the period when a fair sex representative is preparing to become a mother, nurturing her baby. This is also associated with hormonal changes in the body.
  • To cause such a symptom is capable of respiratory-viral infection. After passing through the acute period of the course of the disease, the presence of a subfebrile condition suggests that the inflammatory process is not completely stopped and the fight against the virus is not complete. Therefore, if even the symptomatology of SARS is gone, then the treatment should be continued. In this situation, it will not be superfluous to make an appointment with a specialist (a doctor - an otolaryngologist). If there is no symptomatology, the doctor may prescribe a test, for example, examining a smear from the throat to the present microflora. This will allow to determine the extent of pathological invasion. With a normal course of acute respiratory illness, fever can persist for up to five days, if there is no reduction, therefore, the disease has continued as complications. Additional diagnostics and adequate therapeutic treatment are necessary.
  • Persistent subfebrile deficiency of the hypothalamus and pituitary gland. It is these parts of the human brain that are responsible for fluctuations in body temperature. Unreasonable subfebrile condition is able to indicate that the functioning of these sites is malfunctioning and different from the norm. If the cause of the abnormality is suspected, the specialist will assign a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to the patient. One of the reasons for their failure is the developing tumor tumor.
  • Another reason for the appearance of this symptomatology can be severe pathology of thermoregulatory organs. It requires a deep subject examination and treatment, and in some cases, lifelong maintenance therapy.
  • To cause the emergence of subfebrile pathology is capable and experienced strong stress.
  • Diseases of a dental nature, for example, caries.
  • As evidenced by medical statistics, the modern population, especially large cities and megacities, to some extent suffer from neuroses. Nervous stress affects not only the psyche of people, it suffers from a strong emotional overexcitation and the whole body. Sometimes the nature of some manifestations is difficult to determine. For example, a person complains of uncomfortable sensations in the throat and begins to treat it with antiviral drugs - the result is zero, since the cause of the impaction may be a nervous shock. Therefore, if irritability is observed against the background of the subfebrile state, a sharp change in mood, a feeling of anxiety and sleep disturbance, then these are obvious signs that the fever can hold as a reaction to neurosis.
  • If the indicators on the thermometer go up in the evening, vegetative-vascular dystonia (VSD) is capable of provoking such a clinical picture. This diagnosis indicates a fairly wide range of diseases associated with the vascular system of the brain. But a more specific diagnosis can be obtained after a systematic examination.
  • Mainly, the source of subfebrile is chronic infectious lesions of the ENT - organs and the genitourinary system. If a person has in his history, for example, cystitis or tonsillitis, in a chronic stage of leakage, the risk of recurrent activation of pathogenic microorganisms is significantly increased. Relapse provokes an exacerbation of the disease and an increase in temperature.
  • Subfebrile temperature can be a consequence of the recovery period after the therapeutic treatment of pneumonia. But if the radiography and blood test do not show any deviations from the norm, then you should not worry. Gradually, everything will return to normal.

trusted-source[3], [4], [5]

Causes of subfebrile temperature in children

Everyone knows from childhood that the normal temperature of a person's body is 36.6. But doctors are not so categorical and allow the norm to be 37.0 o. But if the child for several days in a row thermometer shows figures from 37.0 to 38.0 ° C, then this fact begins to seriously disturb the parents. It is interesting that such indicators can be held by the baby for a month, while not being accompanied by other negative symptoms. The child during this period feels completely normal and leads an active lifestyle.

If such a situation occurs for at least two weeks, physicians begin to talk about subfebrility - a medical situation in which the clinical picture is colored with a single symptom - and this is a subfebrile temperature. Ignore this reaction of the baby's body should not. After all, it indicates the presence of some kind of malfunction, which, it is desirable, to establish more quickly and take the necessary measures.

The causes of subfebrile temperature in children are different, but some of them can be voiced:

  • Hidden leaky infectious lesions of internal organs.
  • To cause such a symptom is also capable of an allergic reaction of the baby's organism to any external stimuli.
  • To provoke an increase in temperature indices may be increased thyroid function, which produces an excess of enzymes.
  • The source of high temperature can be the invasion of protozoa, for example, worms.
  • The low content of hemoglobin or red blood cells in the child's blood (anemia), often causes temperature fluctuations.
  • To cause a symptom are also possible failures in the work of metabolic processes, for example, in diabetes mellitus.
  • Diseases affecting children's brain structures.
  • Heavy form of avitaminosis, especially in regard to the lack in the body of the baby of such vitamins as C and the entire spectrum of group B.
  • Congenital or received after birth failures in the immune system.
  • Thermoneurosis is a condition in which the body of a small patient undergoes a violation of natural thermoregulation, that is, the body of the child produces more heat per day than it can consume it. It is this excess and is the cause of low-grade fever. Such a malfunction can occur in the case of abnormalities in the endocrine system or a thermoregulatory center located in the brain.

It should be remembered that the subfebrile condition is not stopped by antipyretic drugs. And the problem is not even that it is useless and does not have any effect, so the protective forces of a small organism are weakened, worsening its ability to confront and fight the disease.

In such a situation, parents are required to check the temperature characteristics of the baby's body for some time, it will not be superfluous to put these figures in a notebook. Such an approach will allow a specialist to better assess the situation. If the temperature keeps on high indicators some days on end, without consultation of the pediatrist here not to manage.

The doctor will prescribe a general examination and after receiving his results he will be able to give the necessary recommendations or will write out medical therapy. Physicians believe that it is necessary to treat this pathology. After all, any deviation from the natural work of a child's body is a stress for him.

In addition to medical treatment, if necessary, parents can help their child by organizing the right day regimen for him, which will include moderate stress and rest, including normal long-term sleep. Not the last place is given to tempering the baby's body - this will allow to remove many problems with the child's health. Physical training also will be beneficial for strengthening the body. You should only adhere to the systematic nature of such procedures, otherwise you can not see the desired result. Practiced in such a clinical picture of hypnosis and acupuncture.

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Causes of prolonged subfebrile temperature

A subfebrile symptom is the indicator on a thermometer ranging from 37 to 38 ° C. Its long manifestation is a frequent complaint with which patients turn to a specialist for consultation. Causes of prolonged subfebrile temperature can be different, for their establishment the patient needs to undergo a complete examination.

Suffice often subfebrile condition is observed in young women against increased fatigue, exhaustion of the body with various diets, weakening or loss of ability to prolonged physical or mental labor. This fact is explained by the physiological individuality of the woman's body. It is women who show a high level of infectious damage to the urogenital system, and it is the female body that undergoes multiple psycho-vegetative disorders.

It should also be understood that a prolonged fever is very rarely provoked by an organic disease. Predominantly, this symptomatology reflects classical vegetative dysfunction - the disease is caused by a symptom-complex of disorders of vegetative, sensomotor and psycho-emotional activity.

Sources that cause a prolonged manifestation of the symptom in question are divided into two groups: non-infectious and infectious pathologies.

Such infectious diseases include:

  • Tuberculosis. When there is a high temperature, which is observed for a long period of time, the first thing that doctors do is an exception to the list of possible causes of the pathological manifestation of such a terrible disease as tuberculosis. It is not always easy to do this. When revealing an anamnesis, the doctor must find out the patient's contact with a patient suffering from an open form of tuberculosis.
  • If the patient has an anamnesis treated with tuberculosis. This disease is dangerous in that it shows a high percentage of relapses. This may be a poorly cured disease, which was carried out over the next three months.

In the presence of one form of tuberculosis, you can observe, in addition to a long subfebrile condition, and additional symptoms:

  • General intoxication of the patient's body.
  • Rapid fatigue and weakness.
  • Increased work of the sweat glands.
  • Impairment of appetite.
  • Loss in weight.
  • The cough that lasts for more than three weeks is a sign of pulmonary tuberculosis. This includes the appearance of shortness of breath, expectoration of blood, pain symptoms in the chest.
  • Complaints about the normal operation of the damaged organ.
  • Focal infection. One of the reasons for the subfebrile condition, many doctors call the presence in the patient's body of a constant foci of infection (sinusitis, adnexitis, tonsillitis and others), although in most cases these diseases are not accompanied by high temperature indices. To prove the involvement of this pathology to the phenomenon under consideration, it is possible only by practical means: after sanitation of the affected site, we get a temperature decrease.
  • Chronic toxoplasmosis. About 90% of patients suffering from this disease have a symptom in their symptomatic set.
  • A similar picture shows chronic brucellosis.
  • Subfebrile condition is a constant companion of such a disease as acute rheumatic fever.
  • This symptom may be a consequence of a past infectious disease, its physicians are called a "temperature tail". An example is pertussis. After the patient ceases to be infectious, his subcortex continues to give signals to a cough, a similar mechanism works here. It turns out the so-called syndrome after viral asthenia - a developing psychopathological disorder. In such a situation, the tests show a norm, and the temperature returns to normal indices independently, sometimes for a couple of months, and sometimes this can stretch out to six months. Although this can not be stated unequivocally. Everything depends on the specific disease and the severity of its manifestation.

To non-infectious diseases that can cause a long subfebrile condition include:

  • Thyrotoxicosis is a disease that has a somatic character. Its appearance is caused by a high concentration of thyroid hormones in the blood plasma of the patient.
  • For some people, low-grade fever is an individual physiological norm.
  • The cause of this symptom may be physical stress, for example, increased exercise.
  • The appearance of high temperature is possible against the background of emotional overload.
  • By virtue of its individual characteristics, such a symptomatology the body is able to respond to food intake.
  • Provoke an increase in temperature can be a long time in a hot and stuffy room.
  • This symptom can cause pregnancy. This is a rare manifestation, but it can manifest itself during the first three to four months from the moment of conception.
  • Premenstrual period in some of the fairer sex.
  • As long-term medical monitoring shows, when measuring body temperature in different axillary basins, the measurement results can differ by 0.1-0.3 ˚C. Higher indicators, for some reason, are shown by the left side.
  • Due to the individuality of the organism, the constant high temperature can be noted by the thermometer as a reflex reaction of the organism to the measurement procedure itself. This applies only to axillary indices. When measuring this indicator in the oral cavity and through the anus, there are no such deviations.

To provoke the symptom of interest to us, the causes relating to the psycho-vegetative region of the human body are capable:

  • Vegetative neurosis is a disease associated with organic changes in the tissues of the autonomic nervous system, the result of which is a violation of their normal functioning.
  • Thermoneurosis is an increase in body temperature, the etiology of which is the neurasthenic nature of pathology. High rates for this disease can last for more than one year.
  • In the history of the patient there is a traumatic brain injury.
  • Violation of structural and functional homeostasis, metabolism and functions in a pathological process affecting the endocrine system.
  • Psycho-emotional overload.
  • Seasonal or permanent allergization.

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Causes of constant low-grade fever

The constant presence of elevated temperature indices of the human body in the intervals above 37.0 ° С to 38.0 ° С is fixed for a long time: from a couple of weeks to several months, if not more than one year, this clinical picture falls under the diagnosis of subfebrile temperature. To deal with the problem, it is necessary to know its source. The reasons for the constant low-grade fever are somewhat diverse, and whether or not the primary source is established depends on the effectiveness of the fight against this pathology.

  • One of the reasons for the constantly present heat can be individual characteristics of the human body.
  • Provoke constant high rates on the thermometer are capable of internal sluggish inflammatory processes of various etiologies.
  • The failure of the process of thermal regulation of the body can be a consequence of a disease of the nervous system (organic nature) affecting the stem structure of the brain.
  • Nonspecific focal infection, which has passed into the plane of chronic, for example, pancreatitis, sinusitis, cholecystitis and others.
  • Diseases of a chronic nature, the basis of which is inflammation, for example, pneumonia.
  • Sluggish infections that are sexually transmitted, for example, syphilis, chlamydiasis, HIV infection.
  • Open or closed form of tuberculosis.
  • Constantly elevated temperature can be observed in the case of invasive damage to helminths or other protozoan parasites.
  • In modern conditions, doctors often state a latent form of sepsis.
  • Malignant tumor.
  • Pathological changes associated with the violation of immune responses of the human body. It can be rheumatoid arthritis, enteritis, ulcerative colitis, allergic reaction to medication.
  • Subfebrile condition may be observed in premenopausal women.
  • Endocrine pathology: thyrotoxicosis, pheochromacytoma.
  • Thermoneurosis is a persistent disorder of heat exchange as a result of functional damage to the center of the thermor, which occurs in autonomic dysfunction in children, adolescents and young women.

The problem in determining the functional reasons for the emergence of subfebrile condition lies in the fact that most patients have a history of chronic infection in the anamnesis.

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Causes of subfebrile temperature in adolescents

The predominantly fixed causes of subfebrile temperature in a teenager are akin to those listed above. The most frequent source of the disease, capable of provoking high temperature indices, observed for a long time, is infectious disease (of various etiologies) of the patient's body. It would seem that the usual acute respiratory viral infection (ARVI) in most cases, in addition to general weakness, headache, pain symptoms in the joints, rhinitis and cough, is accompanied by a subfebrile condition.

Some infectious diseases (for example, chickenpox, rubella) in the infancy pass almost without fever or it takes small increased values, whereas in adolescence, these pathologies are more complex, and the body temperature records are fixed on higher figures.

In the case of a prolonged course of the inflammatory process, the main symptomatology often loses its sharpness and becomes habitual. The only criterion signaling the presence of an internal problem remains the subfebrile condition, which does not last a long time. In this situation, determining the root cause of pathology can be difficult.

The centers of infectious defeat of an organism of the teenager can be:

  • Diseases of the ENT - organs, such as:
    • Sinusitis.
    • Pharyngitis.
    • Rhinitis.
    • Tonsillitis.
    • Laryngitis.
    • Otitis.
    • And other diseases.
  • Dental caries or periodontitis.
  • Pathological lesions of the digestive tract:
    • Colitis (inflammatory process of the intestinal mucosa).
    • Cholecystitis (inflammatory disease of the gallbladder).
    • Gastritis (inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach wall).
    • Pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas).
    • Duodenitis (inflammation of the duodenum).
    • And others.
  • Infectious and inflammatory diseases of the urinary tract:
    • Cystitis.
    • Urethritis.
    • Pyelonephritis.
    • Other diseases affecting this system.
  • Inflammatory diseases affecting the sexual organs of a teenager.
  • Abscesses formed at the injection site.
  • Pathological changes in endocrine genesis.

In order to correctly diagnose and find the cause of subfebrile temperature, the attending doctor usually prescribes to the patient a general analysis of blood and urine. The result of their research clearly shows the presence or absence of an inflammatory process in the body of a teenager. This conclusion is made on the basis of the leukocyte formula, as well as the level of ESR (the rate of erythrocyte sedimentation).

Consultations of more specialized specialists are appointed: dentist, gynecologist, gastroenterologist, otolaryngologist, surgeon, if necessary, and neurologist.

To confirm or deny his suspicions, the expert appoints an additional examination. It can be ultrasound, computed tomography, radiography and other diagnostic techniques.

In case of diagnosing the disease, it is necessary to undergo complete drug therapy. Chronic infectious lesions are especially difficult to treat.

Rarely, but the reason for low-grade fever may be:

  • Toxoplasmosis, the causative agent of which is the simplest intracellular parasite - toxoplasm (Toxoplasma gondii), the main source of which are domestic animals or poorly roasted meat.
  • HIV infection.
  • Brucellosis is a zoonotic infection. She is basically able to hit a teenager who actively helps parents in caring for pets. This disease is quite dangerous, leads to an unrestrained violation of the motor and psychological sphere, the likelihood of a lethal outcome is very high.
  • Parasitic infections, which are caused by helminths, pinworms, ascarids and other parasites.
  • Tuberculosis. How regrettable it sounds, but to date, this disease has passed from the social to the pathology, which is able to affect even young children, it increasingly affects the body and adolescents. Therefore, the annual Mantoux test conducted in schools makes it possible to identify and treat the disease in time. If the lesion affects several organs, then one radiograph of the lungs to determine the cause of subfebrile temperature can be very difficult. At the present stage of the development of medicine, the diagnosis of extrapulmonary forms is still rather difficult.

trusted-source[11]

Causes of subfebrile temperature in the evening

Quite often people on occasion learn about the presence of subfebrile condition, this is due to the fact that very often such a temperature anomaly does not manifest itself with accompanying pathological symptoms. But before you panic, you should follow the instructions for correct temperature measurement. It is necessary to know that the measurement in the armpit should be carried out by holding the thermometer for 5-10 minutes. When measuring temperature indicators with more modern electronic devices, you first need to carefully read the instructions that came with the device and fulfill all of its requirements. Predominantly the time interval of the measurement is also 5-10 minutes.

Determine the end of the measurement time by the sound signal only if the measurement is carried out through the anus. Do not just forget that the temperature measured in the rectum is slightly higher than with a similar measurement in the axillary region.

It is worth knowing that the reasons for low-grade fever in the evening can be quite trivial. The human body is organized in such a way that in the interval from four to six o'clock in the morning and from four to eight o'clock in the evening a physiologically grounded increase in the temperature readings of the body is traced. At many people such improvements just get to a subfebrile zone. To determine that such a picture is an individual feature of your body, you should simply make a fixed measurement every three to four hours during the day, and at least once during the night. Do this manipulation is necessary for several weeks. The results obtained are tabulated, so it will be easier to analyze the results of the measurements.

It is almost impossible to establish the cause of the pathological symptom independently. And if the measurement reveals subfebrile condition, you should consult your district doctor for advice. He is professionally able to assess the situation and, if necessary, write a referral for a consultation to a more narrow specialist. At the same time, medical statistics show that in 2% of the world's population the constant low-grade temperature, especially in the evening, is the norm.

One should not forget the fact that when measuring the temperature of the body under different axillary depressions, the measurement results in most cases differ by 0.1-0.3 ° C. The higher figures are mainly given by the left side.

But the cause of increased indications of the thermometer in the evening may be a non-cured infection, and a slow inflammatory process that has passed into the chronic plane, stressful situations, as well as other pathological disorders. But to establish the cause and source of the disease is capable only of a qualified specialist. He is also able to paint an effective cupping therapy, or, if the cause is not associated with pathologies, will give the necessary recommendations.

If a person does not have anything to hurt, and the thermometer shows a slight elevated temperature, many people do not particularly attach importance to such a picture. But having become acquainted with this article, it can be concluded that ignoring this symptom can lead to irreversible pathological changes in the human body, because the causes of subfebrile temperature are quite diverse and the source of the symptom in question can be quite a serious disease. No one in this article calls for a panic, but a full examination, however, will not be superfluous. After the earlier diagnosed and treated disease, the more likely a favorable outcome, as well as minimizes the likelihood of various complications.

trusted-source[12], [13]

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