Clinical Profile and Role of Haematological Parameters in the Prognosis of Dengue Fever Patients Admitted in a Tertiary Hospital

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Even after the discovery of vaccines for denguefever, it remains a major public health problem in developingtropical and subtropical countries, especially in India. Thedengue fever has a varied clinical spectrum ranging from a mildheadache to severe organ impairment or bleeding, dependingon the virulence and susceptibility of the individual. Thecurrent study investigated the clinical profile of laboratoryconfirmed dengue patients. A secondary objective was to findthe role of haematological parameters in prognosis.Material and Methods: This was a retrospective studyconducted in a tertiary care hospital at Madurai following adengue fever outbreak between August 2017 to November2017 among laboratory-confirmed dengue patients older than16 years. All the relevant clinical and laboratory investigationdetails of the patients were obtained from the medical recordsof the hospital.Results: Fever was present in all the cases with an averageduration of 4.86 ± 1.59 days followed by myalgia (57.39%),vomiting (46.96%), headache (30.43%) and abdominal pain(20%). Bleeding and hepatic complication was presented by22.16% and 50.43%. The mean platelet recovery duration was8.42 ± 1.74 days. A strong positive correlation between day ofrecovery (increasing trend of platelet) from the onset of feverand WBC recovery (rs value 0.0.713, P value <0.001) wasobserved.Conclusion: Dengue fever patients have varied clinicalfeatures varying from fever to severe hepatic complication.For assessing the prognosis of dengue fever, along with thecontinuous monitoring of clinical profile and platelet count,evaluation of WBC recovery is also recommended.