Clinical microbiology and infection : the official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases
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Clin. Microbiol. Infect. · Aug 2003
A prospective study of fever in the accident and emergency department.
Body temperature is one of the most commonly performed measurements in the accident and emergency department, and is often used as the basis for clinical decisions. Fever is frequently assumed to indicate infection, but there are few data on unselected patients presenting acutely. ⋯ There were no simple clinical tests that could distinguish fever due to infection from other diagnoses. The results suggest that, for patients presenting to an emergency department, pyrexia often indicates infection that may necessitate admission, especially in the elderly.