Early diagnosis of dengue virus infection in clinically suspected cases

Objective: Comparison of real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction [RTPCR] and immunoglobulin M [IgM] capture enzyme linked immunosorbent assay [ELISA] for diagnosis of dengue virus infection in first week of illness in clinically suspected patients of dengue fever

---

Study Design: Cross sectional study

---

Place and Duration of Study: Department of haematology, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology [AFIP] Rawalpindi from Jan 2013 to Nov 2013

---

Material and Methods: A cross sectional study including 68 clinically suspected patients of dengue fever according to the World Health Organization [WHO] criteria. IgM capture ELISA and RT PCR for dengue virus ribonucleic acid [RNA] was performed on samples collected from patients having fever for 1 to 7 days. These were divided into two groups. Patients in group 1 presented with fever of 4 days or less, patients in group 2 had fever of 5 to 7 days duration

---

Results: In group 1, 72% of the patients were positive by RT PCR while 31% were positive by IgM capture ELISA. In group 2, 43% of the patients were positive by RT PCR while 97% were positive by ELISA

---

Conclusion: RT PCR can be used for early detection of dengue virus infection in the first few days of fever while IgM ELISA is diagnostic afterwards