Investigating the Causes of Fever and its relation with blood indices in patients with Malignancy Admitted to the Tabriz Children's Hospital in 2017-2018

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigation the causes of fever and its relation with blood indices in patients with malignancy admitted to the Tabriz Children's Hospital in 2017-2018. Materials and Methods: This was a descriptive-analytical cross-sectional study and the target population included children admitted to blood department of Tabriz Children's Hospital due to fever in 2017-18, with at least 100 patient samples from day one to 15 years old. The sampling method was random. Information was collected through a review of patient records. Also for hospitalized patients, blood levels, blood cultures and smears were collected if it was prepared and included in a related questionnaire. The fever type was classified as if the patient had positive culture and clinical signs of infection such as cough and diarrhea in the first step, the fever was recorded as infectious. If the two cases were negative but there was a history of current use of one of the drugs that causes fever or relapses, then the fever was recorded as non-infectious. Results: The ranging of age in the subjects was 3 months to 15 years and their mean age was 6.39 (±3/6) years. The most common cause of fever in this study was infection with 88 cases (63.8%) and drug side effects and recurrence of the underlying disease were 12 cases (9.1%) and 35 cases (27.1%) respectively. The majority of subjects had lower WBC and PLT levels sless than normal, with 70 (51.9%) and 87 (65%), respectively. The levels of other blood indices including RBC, MCV, MCHC, RDW, HB and HCT were normal in most of the subjects. There was a significant relationship between the levels of blood WBC index and variables related to fever causes such as infection, drug complications and underlying disease recurrence. But there was no significant relationship between HB and PLT levels and variables related to fever.