fever, sometimes known as temperature or fever, is an increase in body temperature above what is considered normal. The normal human body temperature fluctuates between 36.5 º and 37.5 º. The mouth acts as an adaptive response that helps the body fight disease-causing organisms and arises in response to substances called pyrogens derived from bacteria or viruses that invade the body. The fever varies depending on several factors:
- Age: The newborn presents problems of temperature regulation because of their immaturity, so that will greatly affect the external changes. In the elderly, body temperature usually decreased (36 ° C).
- The body part is being shot: Rectal making is almost one degree higher than oral
- Time of day: the lowest values \u200b\u200bare reached in the morning and the highest in the afternoon,
- The sex of person: women tend to have somewhat higher figures,
- Physical activity: During the year the temperature increases.
- stress.
- Intense emotions such as anger or rage activate the autonomic nervous system may increase the temperature.
- Treatments drug.
- diseases.
- The ambient temperature and clothing to be worn.
- recent ingestion of hot or cold, for having smoked a cigarette, an enema and humidity in the armpit or friction (for example when drying) can affect the value of the temperature oral, rectal and axillary respectively, so have to wait about 15 minutes before the constant. If the arm is wet, there will be dry by tapping.
Fever is a disease state due to alteration of the temperature regulating mechanism whose typical symptoms include tachycardia, tachypnea (increased breathing rate) and headache. Also causes fever by sweating, a large water loss from the body and can lead to dehydration. Water loss and appetite and destruction of body proteins, causing weight loss. Explains the symptoms of dehydration additives dry skin, dry mouth and constipation.
fever usually occurs in children febrile seizures. It is a temporary neurological symptoms that usually occur in children between 6 months and 5 years, being more common in children 1 to 2 years. It is a distressing and unexpected situation occurs between 3 and 5% of perfectly healthy children because of fever from 38 ° and not necessarily the highest peak. Although seizures are very dramatic, they are harmless and do not leave sequelae.
To measure, the person must be still and quiet and the anatomical sites used as reference for measuring internal body temperature are:
- The rectum,
- ear canal,
- cavity oral, sublingual,
- The esophagus,
- The armpit.
The most common instruments to perform such measurements are
- The mercury glass thermometer,
- digital thermometer,
- The plastic strip thermometer,
- The ear thermometer.
