A clinical study of manifestations of dengue fever and their correlation with the laboratory features in children

Abstract

Objectives: Dengue fever is one of common infectious illnesses in childhood requiring hospital admission. A prospective study was undertaken in a dengue endemic setting to analyze clinical features and their correlation with the laboratory findings. Methods: The study was prospective and observational.106 consecutive patients aged between 3 months to 15 years admitted with a diagnosis of dengue fever were included. The diagnosis was made based on the recent WHO guidelines. Among these cases hematocrit (HCT), platelet count, chest x-ray and dengue NS1, IgG and IgM were analyzed. Results: 41 cases (38.6%) had severe dengue fever. There was a strong statistical correlation between clinical bleeding and platelet counts (p<0.05). Pleural effusion was more common on the right side than the left. Overall mortality was 5.66%. Children who had respiratory distress at the time of admission had a higher mortality rate (p<0.05) Conclusions: Our study correlates bleeding and degrees of thrombocytopenia like other studies. [5,6] High positivity of NS1 in early disease and IgM later correlate with other studies. Right sided pleural effusion was more common in our study contrary to literature given in standard textbook of pediatrics.[2]Mortality was higher in those who presented with respiratory distress an circulatory failure at the time of admission.