A Study on Clinical and Hematological Profile of Dengue Fever in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Introduction: Dengue is one of the most important viral diseases especially in the tropical regions. This disease increases in incidence in the immediate post monsoon period coinciding with the breeding of mosquitos in the stagnant water. It has varied clinical presentation and more or less consistent abnormal laboratory values on complete blood count test. Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to determine the clinical and hematological profile in patients with Dengue fever. Materials and methods: This was a prospective study done in the department of General Medicine at Dr. Pinnamaneni Siddhartha Institute of Medical sciences and Research Foundation, Andhra Pradesh, over duration of 7 months. The study included 60 patients admitted in the hospital and all the cases were IgM dengue positive. Results: There were 40 (66.6%) male and 20 (33.3%) female patients. Out of 60 patients, 30 (50%) were in age group of 20 to 30 years. Most of the cases were found in post monsoon period in September and October. In our study out of 60 cases of dengue fever, raised hematocrit (>47%) was noted in 10 (16.6%) of patients at presentation and 50 (83.3 %) cases had thrombocytopenia, in which 8 (13.3%) cases had < 20,000/cumm with bleeding manifestations. Conclusion: Most common clinical presentation of Dengue fever is of fever with or without myalgia and presence of hepatosplenomegaly. Young adult males are more commonly affected. The most common laboratory abnormalities are of an increase in hematocrit, low total leucocyte count and low platelet count.