Retrospective Analysis of Demographic and Clinical Profile of Dengue Infection in a Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Background: Dengue infection is an exceedingly common cause of fever in the tropical countries. Aim:to study the demographic and clinical profile of Dengue patients. Design: Retrospective observational study of serologically proven dengue cases. Methods and materials: the study included Dengue patients admitted in PSG Hospital between January 2011 and December 2012. Results :Dengue infection was found to be more common in the younger age groups. It was more common in men. It was prevalent across all occupational profiles. The common clinical features included fever, myalgia, headache, abdominal pain, diarrhea and arthralgia. Bleeding manifestations included mucosal and skin bleeds and the commonest bleeding manifestation was melena. There was no major life threatening bleeds. Analysis of the hematological profile showed that nearly 91.5% of patients had thrombocytopenia with 48.9% having severe thrombocytopenia. Conclusion : Dengue infection is an important differential diagnosis for acute febrile illness in the tropics which can present with multiple non specific and systemic symptoms with a high incidence of thrombocytopenia.