Skin rash in relation to dengue outcome

 

 

Abstract              Background: The incidence of dengue around the world has dramatically grown with a large number of asymptomatic cases so the dengue cases which are actual present could not be reported and mostly misclassified. An estimate has indicated 390 million dengue infections per year of which 96 million were developing clinical manifestations with varied severity.10 Another study reported that about 3.9 billion people, in 128 countries, were at risk of infection with dengue viruses. One of the common causes of acute febrile illness is Dengue fever (DF). Skin involvement is seen in more than half of the patients. Aim and Objectives: To study the demographic parameters among the dengue patients. To determine the clinical features and laboratory parameters among the dengue patients with and without skin rash. To determine outcome among the patients with dengue fever and its association with skin rash. Material and Methods: A hospital-based, analytical prospective study was conducted in the Department of General Medicine. Patients older than 16 years of age with clinical features and laboratory reports suggestive of dengue infection were included. The study was conducted for a period of one year from November 2018 to October 2019. These patients were further divided based on the skin rash presence and absence. The data obtained was entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed in SPSS version-22 trial. Analysis was done using unpaired students t-test, ANOVA. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: In total 194 patients with dengue fever were enrolled into the study. About 27 patients were with skin rash. The patients with skin rash were found to have lower platelet levels during the disease course. Patients with skin rash had higher percentage of platelet transfusion which was statistically significant. Conclusion: Cutaneous involvement may facilitate clinical diagnosis but it may not be present among all the patients. Present study confirms that there was no significant difference between patients with dengue fever with or without skin rash in complications and mortality. Further studies with larger sample size, longer duration of follow up and more details regarding skin and mucosal involvement may facilitate in classifying the extent of cutaneous involvement

Key Words: Dengue fever, skin rash, thrombocytopenia.