Utility of warning signs in guiding admission and predicting severe disease in adult dengue.

BACKGROUND: The recommendation from the 2009 World Health Organization guidelines for managing dengue suggests that patients with any warning sign can be hospitalized for observation and management. We evaluated the utility of using warning signs to guide hospital admission and predict disease progression in adults. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort study from January 2010 to September 2012. Daily demographic, clinical and laboratory data were collected from adult dengue patients. Warning signs were recorded. The proportion of admitted patients using current admission criteria and warning signs was compared. The sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of warning signs in predicting disease progression were also evaluated. RESULTS: Four hundred and ninety-nine patients with confirmed dengue were analyzed. Using warning signs instead of the current admission criteria will lead to a 44% and 31% increase in admission for DHF II-IV and SD cases respectively. The proportion of non-severe dengue cases which were admitted also increased by 32% for non DHF II-IV and 33% for non-SD cases. Absence of any warning signs had a NPV of 91%, 100% and 100% for DHF I-IV, DHF II-IV and SD. Of those who progressed to severe illness, 16.3% had warning signs on the same day while 51.3% had warning signs the day before developing severe illness, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated that patients without any warning signs can be managed safely with ambulatory care to reduce hospital resource burden. No single warning sign can independently predict disease progression. The window from onset of warning sign to severe illness in most cases was within one day.

Implications of discordance in world health organization 1997 and 2009 dengue classifications in adult dengue.

BACKGROUND: Revised dengue guidelines were published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2009 addressing severe dengue cases not classified by dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) and shock syndrome (DSS). METHODS AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study to compare WHO 2009 and 1997 classifications using 1278 adult dengue cases confirmed by polymerase chain reaction assay from Singapore epidemics in 2004 and 2007 (predominantly serotype 1 and 2 respectively).DHF occurred in 14.3%, DSS 2.7% and severe dengue 16.0%. The two WHO dengue classifications were discordant in defining severe disease (p<0.001). Five DSS patients (15%) were classified as non-severe dengue without warning signs. Of severe dengue patients, 107 did not fulfil DHF criteria. Of these, 14.9% had self-resolving isolated elevated aminotransferases, 18.7% gastrointestinal bleeding without hemodynamic compromise and 56.1% plasma leakage with isolated tachycardia. We compared both guidelines against requirement for intensive care including the single death in this series: all six had severe dengue; only four had DHF as two lacked bleeding manifestations but had plasma leakage. Increasing length of hospitalization was noted among severe cases with both classifications but the trend was only statistically significant for WHO 2009. Length of hospitalization was significantly longer for severe plasma leakage compared with severe bleeding or organ impairment. Requirement for hospitalization increased using WHO 2009 from 17.0% to 51.3%. CONCLUSIONS: While the WHO 2009 dengue classification is clinically useful, we propose retaining criteria for plasma leakage and hemodynamic compromise from WHO 1997, and refining definitions of severe bleeding and organ impairment to improve clinical relevance having found that differences in these accounted for the discordance between classifications. Findings from our retrospective study may be limited by the study site - a tertiary referral center in a hyperendemic country - and should be evaluated in a wider range of geographic settings.

Persistent arthralgia induced by Chikungunya virus infection is associated with interleukin-6 and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor.

BACKGROUND: Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) infection induces arthralgia. The involvement of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines has been suggested, but very little is known about their secretion profile in CHIKV-infected patients. METHODS: A case-control longitudinal study was performed that involved 30 adult patients with laboratory-confirmed Chikungunya fever. Their profiles of clinical disease, viral load, and immune mediators were investigated. RESULTS: When patients were segregated into high viral load and low viral load groups during the acute phase, those with high viremia had lymphopenia, lower levels of monocytes, neutrophilia, and signs of inflammation. The high viral load group was also characterized by a higher production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as interferon-α and interleukin (IL)-6, during the acute phase. As the disease progressed to the chronic phase, IL-17 became detectable. However, persistent arthralgia was associated with higher levels of IL-6 and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, whereas patients who recovered fully had high levels of Eotaxin and hepatocyte growth factor. CONCLUSIONS: The level of CHIKV viremia during the acute phase determined specific patterns of pro-inflammatory cytokines, which were associated with disease severity. At the chronic phase, levels of IL-6, and granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor found to be associated with persistent arthralgia provide a possible explanation for the etiology of arthralgia that plagues numerous CHIKV-infected patients.

When less is more: can we abandon prophylactic platelet transfusion in Dengue fever?

Dengue fever (DF) has several hematological manifestations including thrombocytopenia and increased bleeding risk. Prophylactic platelet transfusion-in the absence of major bleeding-is utilized in DF with thrombocytopenia with the intention of preventing hemorrhagic complications. However, prophylactic platelet transfusion in DF is neither standardized nor supported by clinical evidence. We conclude that risks, costs and poor resource utilization associated with prophylactic platelet transfusion in DF far outweigh any potential hematological benefit, and as such, should not constitute routine clinical practice.

IL-1beta, IL-6, and RANTES as biomarkers of Chikungunya severity.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the immunopathogenesis of Chikungunya virus. Circulating levels of immune mediators and growth factors were analyzed from patients infected during the first Singaporean Chikungunya fever outbreak in early 2008 to establish biomarkers associated with infection and/or disease severity. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Adult patients with laboratory-confirmed Chikungunya fever infection, who were referred to the Communicable Disease Centre/Tan Tock Seng Hospital during the period from January to February 2008, were included in this retrospective study. Plasma fractions were analyzed using a multiplex-microbead immunoassay. Among the patients, the most common clinical features were fever (100%), arthralgia (90%), rash (50%) and conjunctivitis (40%). Profiles of 30 cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors were able to discriminate the clinical forms of Chikungunya from healthy controls, with patients classified as non-severe and severe disease. Levels of 8 plasma cytokines and 4 growth factors were significantly elevated. Statistical analysis showed that an increase in IL-1beta, IL-6 and a decrease in RANTES were associated with disease severity. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first comprehensive report on the production of cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors during acute Chikungunya virus infection. Using these biomarkers, we were able to distinguish between mild disease and more severe forms of Chikungunya fever, thus enabling the identification of patients with poor prognosis and monitoring of the disease.