[Fever in rheumatic diseases--the spectrum of causes and diagnostic guidelines]

The review presents a systematic approach to the diagnostic problem of fever in combination with inflammatory rheumatic symptoms, specifically, in regards to: actual concepts of the pathogenesis of fever in various rheumatic diseases, fever as expression of disease activity, fever as a warning sign of complications in the course of disease and its treatment (infections, drug-induced fever, fever following drug withdrawal, secondary neoplasias), fever and inflammatory rheumatic symptoms as manifestation of non-rheumatic diseases. Based on the literature and information provided by pharmaceutical companies, a survey is given on the frequency of fever as a negative side-effect of the most commonly used drugs in rheumatology.