Clinical Profile and Role of Haematological Parameters in the Prognosis of Dengue Fever Patients Admitted in a Tertiary Hospital

Introduction: Even after the discovery of vaccines for dengue fever, it remains a major public health problem in developing tropical and subtropical countries, especially in India. The dengue fever has a varied clinical spectrum ranging from a mild headache to severe organ impairment or bleeding, depending on the virulence and susceptibility of the individual. The current study investigated the clinical profile of laboratoryconfirmed dengue patients. A secondary objective was to find the role of haematological parameters in prognosis. Material and Methods: This was a retrospective study conducted in a tertiary care hospital at Madurai following a dengue fever outbreak between August 2017 to November 2017 among laboratory-confirmed dengue patients older than 16 years. All the relevant clinical and laboratory investigation details of the patients were obtained from the medical records of the hospital. Results: Fever was present in all the cases with an average duration of 4.86 ± 1.59 days followed by myalgia (57.39%), vomiting (46.96%), headache (30.43%) and abdominal pain (20%). Bleeding and hepatic complication was presented by 22.16% and 50.43%. The mean platelet recovery duration was 8.42 ± 1.74 days. A strong positive correlation between day of recovery (increasing trend of platelet) from the onset of fever and WBC recovery (rs value: 0.0.713, P value: <0.001) was observed. Conclusion: Dengue fever patients have varied clinical features varying from fever to severe hepatic complication. For assessing the prognosis of dengue fever, along with the continuous monitoring of clinical profile and platelet count, evaluation of WBC recovery is also recommended.