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Pel-Ebstein fever



Pel-Ebstein fever
Classification & external resources
eMedicine med/1770 

Pel-Ebstein fever is a rarely seen condition noted in patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma in which the patient experiences fevers which cyclicly increase then decrease over an average period of 1 or two weeks. [1] The same type of cyclic fever is also associated with other conditions such as tuberculosis[2], but it is not called "Pel-Ebstein fever" unless the fever is associated with Hodgkin's.[3]

Contents

Causes

The cause is currently unknown although speculation centers on host immune response, lymph node necrosis, and damaged stomal cells. [4]

Treatment

Treatment with nonsteroidal antiinflamitory agents or treatment of the underlying Hodgkin's (usually with chemotherapy) will help the symptoms. [1]

Eponym

The condition is named after Wilhelm Ebstein and PK Pel who both published papers in 1887 noting the phenomenon. [5] [6] [2]

Controversy

Researchers have speculated whether this condition truly exists. In an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, Richard Asher refers to Pel-Ebstein fever as an example of a condition that exists only because it has a name. "Every student and every doctor knows that cases of Hodgkin's disease may show a fever that is high for one week and low for the next week and so on. Does this phenomenon really exist at all?..." [7]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Mauch, Peter; James Armitage, Volker Diehl, Richard Hoppe, Laurence Weiss (1999). Hodgkin's Disease. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 327-328. ISBN 0-7817-1502-4. 
  2. ^ a b synd/438 at Who Named It
  3. ^ eMedicine - Pel-Ebstein Fever : Article by Ephraim P Hochberg, MD. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
  4. ^ Ree, HJ (1987). "Stromal macrophage-histiocytes in Hodgkin's disease. Their relation to fever.". Cancer 60 (1479).
  5. ^ Ebstein, Wilhelm (1887). "Das chronische Ruckfallsfieber, eine neue Infectionskrankheit". Berlin Klin Wochenschr 24 (565).
  6. ^ Pel, PK (1887). "Pseudoleukaemie oder chronisches Ruckfallsfieber?". Berlin Klin Wochenschr 24 (565).
  7. ^ Asher, Richard (July 6, 1995). "Making Sense". The New England Journal of Medicine 333.
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Pel-Ebstein_fever". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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