Case 35-1986

Presentation of CaseA 70-year-old woman was admitted to the hospital because of fever of unknown origin.She was in a stable state of health until eight weeks earlier, when she began to experience increasing fatigue. During the next two weeks a nonproductive cough developed, with rise of the temperature as high as 38.4°C, chilliness, sweats, malaise, and a severe headache over the right ear and the occiput. A physician prescribed erythromycin, without improvement, and she was admitted to another hospital. Urinalysis was normal. The hematocrit was 31.5 percent; the white-cell count was 7500, with 86 percent neutrophils. The erythrocyte . . .