Analysis of clinical and laboratory profile of a recent dengue outbreak in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry

• Author Details:   
• Pon Roja Murugaraj ^*
• Shashikala Nair
• Moses Marie Ambroise
• Nimmy Elizabeth George

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Background: Dengue fever is a mosquito-borne, self-limiting viral disease, endemic in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. Detection of NS1 antigen and IgM antibody are the basic methods for diagnosis. This study was done to analyze the demographic profile, association of serological markers and platelet count with the severity of dengue infection in a tertiary care hospital in Puducherry.
Materials and Methods: This is a retrospective cross-sectional study. Data of 261 serologically positive dengue patients during the period between January 2022 and December 2022 was analyzed for duration of fever, risk factors, treatment modalities, complications, morbidity and mortality.  Severity of the disease was correlated with serological markers, platelet count and other platelet indices.
Results: Seroprevalence of dengue infection was found to be 33%.  Among them, 41% were exclusively positive for NS1 antigen, 38% were positive for both NS1 antigen and IgM antibody, and 21% were exclusively positive for IgM antibody. About 73.9% of the patients developed thrombocytopenia. Various platelet indices were found to have a statistically significant association with bleeding manifestations and serological markers. About 7.2% of the patients developed complications, the most common being dengue hemorrhagic fever.
Conclusion: Dengue infection is of major concern in and around Puducherry. Various platelet indices were found to have a statistically significant association with complications of dengue fever. A longer study period and a larger sample size would have helped us achieve better results and probably a significant association between the parameters.

Keywords: Dengue fever, NS1 antigen, IgM antibody, Thrombocytopenia, Platelet indices