Pel-Ebstein fever

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Pel-Ebstein fever
Classification and 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[dubious – discuss], but it is not called "Pel-Ebstein fever" unless the fever is associated with Hodgkin's.[2]

Contents

[edit] Causes

The cause is currently unknown although speculation centers on host immune response, lymph node necrosis, and damaged stomal cells. [3]

[edit] Treatment

Treatment with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents or treatment of the underlying Hodgkin's (usually with chemotherapy) will help the symptoms. [1]

[edit] Eponym

The condition is named after Wilhelm Ebstein and PK Pel who both published papers in 1887 noting the phenomenon. [4] [5] [6]

[edit] Controversy

Researchers have speculated whether this condition truly exists, since some authorities anecdotally estimate only a 5-10% occurrence rate.[2] In his Lettsomian Lecture Making Sense, delivered to the Medical Society of London in 1959, 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]

[edit] References

  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 eMedicine - Pel-Ebstein Fever : Article by Ephraim P Hochberg, MD. Retrieved on 2007-07-08.
  3. ^ Ree, HJ (1987). "Stromal macrophage-histiocytes in Hodgkin's disease. Their relation to fever.". Cancer 60 (1479). 
  4. ^ Ebstein, Wilhelm (1887). "Das chronische Ruckfallsfieber, eine neue Infectionskrankheit". Berlin Klin Wochenschr 24 (565). 
  5. ^ Pel, PK (1887). "Pseudoleukaemie oder chronisches Ruckfallsfieber?". Berlin Klin Wochenschr 24 (565). 
  6. ^ synd/438 at Who Named It
  7. ^ Hilson, A.J.W. & DiNubile, M.J. (1995-07-06), “Correspondence”, New England Journal of Medicine 333: 66-67, <http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/333/1/66>. Retrieved on 18 March 2008 . They cite Richard Asher's lecture Making Sense (Lancet, 1959, 2, 359)