Childhood Acute Leukemia

James Harper, MD

Department of Pediatrics, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE

This case was reviewed and updated in May 2011 by members of the Teaching Cases Subcommittee

Copyright of the American Society of Hematology, 2006. ISSN: 1931-6860.

V. DIFFERENTAL DIAGNOSIS

This child’s initial problem was fever without known cause. This is a common differential diagnosis in pediatrics. There are a number of potential causes for fever that must be sorted out in each patient. The first step is to recognize the main categories of disease entities that present with fever.

Four categories of disease entities that present with fever are listed in alphabetical order below. How should they be arranged from most to least common?

  1. Collagen-vascular / Inflammatory
  2. Infection
  3. Malignancy
  4. Undiagnosed
B, A, C, D
B, C, A, D
B, C, D, A
B, D, A, C

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