Can chronic nephritis cause low fever?

In today's social life, more and more diseases have caused trouble to our psychology and brought immeasurable harm to our body. Chronic nephritis is one of those diseases. Some people think that it is not too serious because it sounds chronic, so it is easy for them to miss the best time for treatment, causing the disease to worsen and thus become irreversible. So can chronic nephritis cause low-grade fever?

Yes. Typical symptoms of nephritis include fever (either high or low), back pain, and urinary tract irritation symptoms such as frequent urination, urgency, and pain during urination, which may be accompanied by systemic symptoms such as general fatigue and discomfort. During physical examination, there is percussion pain in the kidney area, and white blood cells can be found in urine routine tests.

A variety of illnesses can cause a low-grade fever. Fever is a symptom. Diseases such as rheumatism, tuberculosis, chronic inflammation, and low immunity can cause persistent low fever. Long-term psychological stress and emotional instability can also cause disorders in the body temperature center, resulting in persistent low fever of unknown cause. A problem with any system in the body can cause a persistent low-grade fever.

Do not abuse medicine for unexplained low-grade fever. Fever is one of the body's responses to disease. Taking antipyretics for patients with low fever is not conducive to the treatment of the disease. Indiscriminate use of antipyretics may also lead to a decrease in white blood cells and aplastic anemia. If a low-grade fever persists, you should seek medical attention as soon as possible and undergo a comprehensive examination. Some early symptoms of malignant tumors or bacterial infections are also low-grade fever.

The low fever referred to in traditional Chinese medicine also includes a situation in which the patient subjectively feels hot in the palms and soles and hot in the chest, but the body temperature is not higher than normal. Common manifestations include night heat and morning coolness, or night fever, afternoon hot flashes, hot hands and soles, bone steaming fever, often accompanied by weight loss, fatigue, weakness, poor appetite, irritability, red tongue with little coating, and thin pulse. Low-grade fever is often a major problem in clinical diagnosis. A fever lasting more than 4 weeks is called long-term low-grade fever. The reasons can be further investigated from the following aspects:

1. Tuberculous low-grade fever: manifested by low-grade fever and rapid erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Sometimes chest X-ray examination may be negative, but the possibility of tuberculosis cannot be ruled out. Tuberculin test or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) can be done to rule out tuberculosis infection.

2. Whether there is any chronic infection: such as sinusitis, tonsils, gums, middle ear, bile duct and other chronic infections.

3. Do a liver function + hepatitis B antigen and liver and gallbladder B-ultrasound test to exclude hepatitis and liver and gallbladder diseases without obvious symptoms.

4. Perform a routine urine test to exclude latent urinary tract infection.

5. Status after streptococcal infection:

After suffering a respiratory tract infection, persistent low-grade fever may occur. When tested in the blood, the anti-"O" titer increases and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate accelerates. The symptoms can be relieved rapidly with treatment with penicillin and low-dose corticosteroids. This phenomenon of low-grade fever is called the post-streptococcal state. If there is no organic lesion, the possibility of functional low fever can be considered:

(1) Physiological low fever: seen in women with low fever before menstruation or during pregnancy;

(2) Neurofunctional hypothermia: Clinically, it is more common in young people aged 20-30 years old, and the patient's body temperature is 0.3℃-0.5℃ higher than normal. There may be no symptoms, or there may be symptoms such as dizziness, insomnia, and fatigue. This type of patients accounts for about 1/3 of the total number of patients with long-term low-grade fever and has a good prognosis;

(3) Post-infectious low-grade fever: A small number of patients may continue to have a low-grade fever for several weeks after recovery from an acute infectious disease. This is related to the fact that the function of the body's temperature regulation center has not yet recovered.

Beware of the dangers of low-grade fever:

Once the body temperature drops to 36℃, people's reaction and judgment abilities will be weakened; when it drops to 35℃, walking will become difficult; when it drops to 33℃, people will lose their minds; at 30℃, people will lose consciousness. When the body temperature drops to 20℃, the human heart will stop beating.

Nephritis is caused by abnormal deposition of immune conformations in the glomeruli, which damages the glomerular basement membrane, leading to leakage of occult blood and protein, which manifests clinically as proteinuria and hematuria. Leakage of protein and occult blood can lead to further damage to the kidneys and complications (hypertension, edema, etc.). For example, some Jinshuibao, Bailing, Huangkui, and hormones are drugs that protect the kidneys or immunosuppressants, but they do not fundamentally treat damaged kidneys. Clinically, if chronic glomerulonephritis is not treated effectively in time, the disease will gradually progress, and in the later stage it will transform into varying degrees of glomerular sclerosis, tubular atrophy of the corresponding nephron, renal interstitial fibrosis, and finally develop into chronic renal failure and uremia.

After reading the above introduction about whether chronic nephritis can cause low-grade fever, I think everyone should have understood it. Chronic nephritis does cause low-grade fever, not only that, but it can also lead to more serious conditions. We should pay attention to diet and sleep quality and pay more attention to our physical health. We must take good care of ourselves and seek treatment for illness as soon as possible if we get sick. We should not delay.