Bleeding risk in Dengue fever: A clinico-laboratory profile study

<p><strong>Introduction: </strong>Dengue infection is a prevalent arthropod-borne illness caused by dengue virus. Several outbreaks have been reported from India. Annually millions of cases of dengue fever (DF) and half a million of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF)occur worldwide. 90% of DHF occurs in children aged &lt;15 years.</p> <p><strong>Aims and</strong> <strong>objectives: </strong>To study haematological markers correlating with clinical profile and laboratory values which significantly correlate to clinical bleeding in patients with DF and DHF.</p> <p><strong>Materials and method:</strong> Children admitted in Chigateri General Hospital and Bapuji Child Health Institute, Davangere with signs and symptoms of dengue fever and also who had IgM or IgM/IgG positive levels, during a 2-year period from November 2010 to November 2012 were included in the study.</p> <p><strong>Result: </strong>A total of 100 patients with serologically positive dengue were included in study and classified as classical DF(61%), DHF(23%) and Dengue Shock Syndrome(DSS)(16%). Mean age was 7.2 years. Typically clinical features included fever (100%), vomiting(67%), abdominal pain(61%), periorbital pain (23%) and bleeding manifestations(43%), with malena(37%) being most common. Thrombocytopenia (&lt;1lac/cumm) was in 43%. Bleeding time, PT and aPTTwas significant in study. Bleeding was more in DHF and DSS.</p> <p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Bleeding manifestations are very common in dengue infection with altered laboratory parameters. Thus, bleeding manifestations and low platelet count with altered coagulation profile in serologically positive cases can be used to guard the prognosis of dengue fever and DHF.</p>