Affiliations: Department of Infectious Disease, Chonnam National
University Medical School, Gwang Ju, Korea | Department of Rheumatology, Chonnam National
University Medical School, Gwang Ju, Korea
Note: [] Corresponding author: Kyung Hwa Park, Department of Infectious
disease, Chonnam National University Medical School, Gwang Ju, Korea. E-mail:
iammedkid@naver.com
Abstract: INTRODUCTION: In this study, we determined whether serum ferritin
levels could be used to differentiate between fever of unknown origin (FUO)
caused by infectious and noninfectious diseases. METHODS: FUO patients were hospitalized at Chonnam National
University Hospital between January, 2005 and December, 2011. According to the
final diagnoses, five causes were identified, including infectious diseases,
hematologic diseases, noninfectious inflammatory diseases, miscellaneous
and undiagnosed. RESULTS: Of the 77 patients, 11 were caused by infectious diseases,
13 by hematologic diseases, 20 by noninfectious inflammatory diseases, 8 by
miscellaneous diseases, and 25 were undiagnosed. The median serum ferritin
levels in infectious diseases was lower than those in hematologic diseases and
(median (interquartile range) of 282.4 (149.0–951.8) ng/mL for the infectious disease group, 1818.2
(485.4–4789.5) ng/mL for the hematologic disease group, and 563.7
(399.6–1927.2) ng/mL for the noninfectious inflammatory disease group,
p=0.048, Kruskal–Wallis test). By comparison using the Mann–Whitney
test, statistically significant differences were found only between the
infectious disease and hematologic disease groups (p=0.049) and between the
infectious disease and groups (p=0.04). CONCLUSION: An optimal cutoff value of serum ferritin levels to
predict FUO caused by a noninfectious disease (hematologic diseases,
noninfectious inflammatory diseases) was established as 561 ng/mL.
