Sonographic Eye on Dengue during Clinical Evaluation and Early Diagnosis in Children

The study was done during epidemic of dengue in South India tertiary paediatric Hospital during 2019, for a period of one month. Role of ultrasound in early identification of dengue and its complications along with clinical and laboratory investigations. Ultrasound was performed on 112 patients (1–14 years) referred from dept. of paediatrics for ultrasound with features of dengue and its complication and later confirmed the diagnosis with serology proven. 30 patients were serologically negative for dengue fever hence excluded from the study. Out of 92 serologically positive cases 31 cases visited hospital at early stage and undergone ultrasound during 2/3rd day and 5/7th day of fever. During 2/3rd day ultrasound showed as almost all showed gall bladder wall thickening and pericholecystic fluid (in different patterns), 32.5% had hepatomegaly, 16.12% had splenomegaly and 19.35% right minimal pleural effusion, 3.25% left plural effusion. Follow-up ultrasound on fifth to seventh day revealed ascites in 93.5%, hepatomegaly in 90.3%, right plural effusion 80.6%, left pleural effusion in 41.9% and pericardial effusion in 29%. Of the 61 patients who underwent the study on fifth to seventh day of fever for the first time almost all had gall bladder wall thickening, 95.0%had hepatomegaly, 27.8% had splenomegaly, 96.7% had ascites, 95.08% had right pleural effusion, 75.4% had left pleural effusion and 22.9% had pericardial fluid. To conclude, in an epidemic of dengue, ultrasound features of thickened gall bladder wall, pleural effusion heaptomegaly and ascites should strongly favour the diagnosis of dengue fever