Aspiration-related fever: discrepancy between fever and imaging on aspiration.
A debilitated 63-year-old man with Alzheimer disease who had a 6 week-history of high-grade fever of unknown etiology became afebrile 1 week after gastrostomy was performed to prevent aspiration. There was no active infiltration on imaging studies, such as chest X-ray films and computed tomography of the chest. Thus, this clinical condition could be described as aspiration-related fever. In other words, imaging studies may not be the gold standard for diagnosing fever related to aspiration.
Yamamoto
Tetsuro
T
Department of General Medicine, Nakagawa Hospital, Fukuoka, Japan. yamamotogm2005@yahoo.co.jp
Ohuchida
Toshiyuki
T
D005334:Fever / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011015:Pneumonia, Aspiration / Q000150:complications* / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013902:Radiography, Thoracic; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed