Fever in Chidhood Leukemia : 5 years study at Srinagarind Hospital
Abstract
Two hundred and thirty-six febrile episodes of one hundred and twenty leukemic patients seen at Department of Pediatrics, Srinagarind Hospital , KhonKaen University during June 1984-May 1989 were studied. The age ranged from 7 months-14 years (mean 6.6 years).Male to female ratio was 1.5 :1 .The majority of them was acute lymphoblastic leukemia (66%). One hundred and twenty-one episodes were associated with neutropenia (Absolute neutrophil count <1000/mm3). Themost common cause of fever was infection (65%), followed bymalignancy (14%) , anemia (3%) chemotherpy (2%) and unexplained fever (16%) Infections were found in 77% of neutropenic and 53% of non-neutropenic patients (p<0.0002).The infections commonly involved respiratory tract, gastrointestinal system, skin subcutaneous and blood stream respectively.
Ninety-six percent of infectious organism were bacteria, most of which (73%) was gram negative especially E.coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus were the common gram positive bacteria. Overall fatality rate was17 % (20 cases) . 17 of 20 cases (85%) died from infections
