ABSTRACT
Introduction: Febrile thrombocytopenia is thethrombocytopenia associated with febrile illness. Thecommon causes are dengue, rickettsiae, malaria, typhoid,septicemia and in some cases undifferentiated fever. Thepresent study was intended to know the underlying etiology offebrile thrombocytopenia cases admitted to our hospital, thevarious presentations and relationship between platelet countand bleeding manifestation and prognosis.Material and methods: The study was conducted on 855patients aged 18 years and above who presented with feverand thrombocytopenia and were admitted in MVJ MedicalCollege and Research Hospital, Hoskote, Bengaluru ruraldistrict from January 2016 to December 2018.Results: A total of 855 patients of febrile thrombocytopeniawere admitted to our hospital during study period. Majority ofpatients were in the age group of 18 to 40 years with male tofemale ratio of 1.15: 1. Most of the cases presented during themonths of July to September. Commonest clinical presentationwere fever (100%), myalgia (86.5%) and headache (84.7%).In the majority of patients, thrombocytopenia was transient,present for 2 – 3 days, but bleeding manifestations were seenin 24.3% of patients. Petechiae (14%) was the commonestbleeding manifestation. 691 (80.81%) patients had plateletcount between 50000 to 1.5 lakh/mm3 and 164 (19.18%)cases had platelet count less than 50000/mm3 Only 5.6%had need for platelet transfusion. Dengue (51.9%) was thecommonest cause of thrombocytopenia followed by rickettsialfever (27.7%). In 15.6% of patients the etiology could not beascertained.Conclusion: Febrile thrombocytopenia is the most commoncause for admission to the hospital which requires extensiveevaluation and prompt management.