Fever Patterns

 Sustained/Continuous fever:Persistent rise in temperature with minimal(<1C)diurnal variation.eg- Pneumonia, meningitis,UTI,brucella

Intermittent fever: Exaggeration of normal circadian rhythm.If the variation between high and low is extremely large it is called hectic.eg-Deep seated infection,abscesses,malignancy,kala-azar,drug fever.

Remittent fever: Temperature spikes fall daily with diurnal variation of >2 degree celsius,but doesn't touches baseline.eg-Tuberculosis,infective endocarditis,

Relapsing fever:Febrile episodes seperated by intervals of normal temperature .eg-malaria,borrelia,lymphoma.

If it occurs daily,it is called quotidian fever.cause- plasmodium falciparum.

Double quotidian fever when there are 2 spikes of fever everyday,once in morning and once in evening.causes-miliary tuberculosis 

If it occurs every 48 hrs- tertian fever.causes-plasmodium falciparum,ovale and vivax.

If it occurs every 72 hrs- quartan fever.cause-plasmodium malariae.

Inverse fever -Temperature rises in the early hours of morning rather than evening.some cases of  military tuberculosis

REFERENCE -HUTCHISON'S 24th edition,Page no-144.