Which fever pattern describes fever that occurs with periods of normal temperature between episodes?

• A. Intermittent
• B. Remittent
• C. Relapsing
• D. Constant continuous

Answer: (A)

Patterns of fever describe how temperature changes between spikes. The key idea here is whether the body returns to normal temperature between febrile episodes. The described pattern—fever spikes occur with periods of normal temperature in between—is intermittent fever. It means you see a clear fever episode, then a return to baseline, then another episode later. By contrast, a remittent fever stays elevated overall and just fluctuates without ever fully normalizing between days, a relapsing fever features fever that resolves and then recurs after a new afebrile interval, and constant fever remains persistently high.