Night sweats can have various causes, ranging in severity from 'minor' to 'generally fatal'. Finding the true cause means ruling out or confirming each possibility – in other words, diagnosis.
Diagnosis is usually a complex process due to the sheer number of possible causes and related symptoms. In order to diagnose night sweats, we could:
Cause | Probability | Status |
---|---|---|
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma | 94% | Confirm |
Hodgkin's Lymphoma | 24% | Unlikely |
Histoplasmosis | 15% | Unlikely |
Tuberculosis | 1% | Ruled out |
Mycobacterium Avium | 0% | Ruled out |
Rheumatoid Arthritis | 0% | Ruled out |
Hypoglycemia | 0% | Ruled out |
AML Leukemia | 0% | Ruled out |
Night Sweats. Do you sweat at night? Only include sweating that is not due to an overly warm environment or too many bed covers.
Possible responses:
→ Don't know→ No → Only slightly → Moderately, sheets are damp or moist → Profusely, sheets are soaked |
Night sweats or their daytime version, hot flashes, may be the first symptom of low estrogen. In both cases, the profuse sweating follows a brief but intense wave of heat, usually in the face and chest.
Night sweats can occur due to associated bacterial, viral, or fungal infections.
Several malignancies can lead to night sweats.
A hidden infection, such as an abscess in the liver or spleen, can cause night sweats and fever without many other symptoms.
Various fungal infections are associated with chronic night sweats. Histoplasmosis, an infection usually seen in the southeastern, mid-Atlantic and central United States, is one such illness. You are less likely to have histoplasmosis or another fungal infection if you have had night sweats for more than a few months with no other symptoms.
The most common clinical presentations in the high-risk groups or ARC patients includes night sweats. If HIV has progressed to an advanced stage, night sweats become a severe problem.
Nighttime hypoglycemia may be without symptoms or manifest itself as night sweats, unpleasant dreams or early morning headache.
This symptom may be one of many associated with mercury toxicity.
Mycobacterium avium infection can cause night sweats. A mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) diagnostic test can be done to identify the infection or rule it out. MAC is common in women with HIV/AIDS and can be deadly if left untreated.
Night sweats, depression and lethargy can accompany this disease.
Tuberculosis (TB) is the classic cause of night sweats. Early on the immune system typically controls the infection and few if any symptoms develop. Then, later in life, the infection may reactivate, causing a chronic pneumonia with fever, night sweats, weight loss and cough. Sometimes the infection involves the lungs minimally, if at all. If you have had night sweats for more than a month or two without any other symptoms, tuberculosis would be less likely but not impossible.