Types of temperature curves for various diseases

Since the body temperature of a healthy person is a constant value, with insignificant fluctuations in tenths of a degree, its increase on a larger scale always indicates the presence of inflammatory processes in the body, including the infectious nature. The level of heat of the human body in dynamics is called the temperature curve, which is often identified with fever (temporary rise in temperature).

Graphic construction of the patient's temperature curve plays an important role in diagnosing and forecasting, and it is also necessary for an objective assessment of the course of the disease. Body temperature is measured at least twice a day: in the morning and evening hours, and in the midst of an infectious disease - several times a day.

What are the types of temperature curves?

They differ depending on the degree of increase. There are the following types of temperature curves: subfebrile - not exceeding 38 ° C, medium or moderate - 39 ° C, pyretic - up to 41 ° C, superpyretic - above 41 ° C (extremely rare phenomenon).

Types of temperature curves for infectious diseases determine the classification of fever, depending on the degree of diurnal temperature fluctuations. Let us list these types of fever (types of temperature curves): constant, laxative, intermittent, exhausting, recurrent, wave-like and inverse.

Characteristics of persistent fever

It is observed in such infectious diseases as abdominal and typhus, pneumococcal pneumonia. Graphically, the constant fever is displayed as trapezoidal types of temperature curves, the characteristic feature of which is the fluctuation of body temperature by no more than 1 °, while the body temperature remains at a high level for 390 ° C for a long time. As the disease recedes, the temperature curve may drop at a steep rate, and gradually.

Characteristics of remitting fever

Delaying types of temperature curves are observed in purulent diseases, catarrhal pneumonia, typhoid fever, and also in tuberculosis. The body temperature also keeps at a high level, however, in contrast to the constant fever, in this case, the amplitude of the fluctuations of the morning and evening temperatures reaches 2 degrees, dropping, thus, to 38 ° C, but not returning to normal values.

Interfering fever

Intermittent, or laxative, fever most often expresses the type of temperature curve of malaria. Accompanied by sharp increases in body temperature (febrile), which are followed by afefrile periods, that is, with normal temperature indices. Intervals between febrile fever can last from one to three days, while the patient feels chills as the temperature rises, and when it decreases, there is a marked sweating.

The weakening fever can not unequivocally testify to the presence of malaria in the patient, this type of febrileity is actually inherent in a variety of infectious diseases such as recurrent epidemic typhus, focal purulent infections, sodok (an infection transmitted to a person from a rat bite), liver disease and others.

Exhausting fever

The debilitating type of fever is accompanied by large swings between morning and evening temperature values, the amplitude of the oscillations reaches 3-5 ° C. The period of febrility may last several days, after which the temperature regime normalizes due to the weakening of the disease. Depleting fever - a sure sign of septic, purulent infections, also occurs in tuberculosis.

Recurrent fever

Characteristics of this type of fever lies in its name. This means that the period of pyrexia (elevated body temperature) with a duration of several days returns again after a certain period of aporexia. Thus, for a few days the patient has an obvious fever with insignificant amplitude fluctuations in the morning and afternoon temperatures, then for a few days there comes a calm, the body temperature is normalized, but then the picture repeats again up to 4-5 times. Such a temperature curve is characteristic of infectious diseases, the causative agents of which are spiroceti bacteria, an example of this type of disease is recurrent typhus.

Wavy fever

Wave-shaped temperature curve is a kind of recurrent fever, as it also has periods of alternation of febrileity with remission. However, the wave-like curve is characterized by smoother transitions that show a gradual increase in temperature for several days, and then it also gradually decreases for several days. Such a fever is accompanied by a course of brucellosis.

Inverse Fever

Inverted, or perverted, fever differs from other types of temperature curves in that the temperature apogee occurs not in the evening, but, conversely, in the morning hours. Such a course of febrility is characteristic of prolonged sepsis and neglected forms of tuberculosis, as well as of viral diseases.

Incorrect fever

Wrong fever does not have a clear schematic manifestation. It includes at once all the main types of temperature curves. The amplitude of the variation of the temperature values can be varied, with different frequency. Nevertheless, the atypical form of the temperature curve is most common, accompanying not only infectious diseases, but also various stages of rheumatism, influenza, dysentery, inflammation in the lungs, etc.

Regardless of what types of temperature curves for fever occurred in the patient, fever passes through three main stages:

1. Stage of temperature increase. Under the influence of pyrogens (in the case of infectious diseases - an external factor, namely various pathogenic bacteria and viruses), the so-called "setting point" in the neurons is shifted. Thus, the heat transfer regime of the body is violated, and the present temperature is considered lower than necessary, as a result of which the body actively raises its temperature.
2. Temperature maximum (apogee). The body temperature continues to increase to the level at which the "setting point" has shifted, at this moment a temperature maximum is reached, an equilibrium is established between the production and the heat release.
3. Remission occurs when the action of pyrogens weakens, and the elevated temperature of the body at that time is perceived by the body as excessive. The process of enhanced heat transfer begins and the reset point returns to the previous level.