Coagulation abnormalities and their relationship with bleeding manifestations in patients with dengue-A single center observational study

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate coagulation abnormalities and their relationship with bleeding manifestations among patients with dengue. Methods: This observational study was conducted on 292 adult dengue patients who were admitted to a tertiary care hospital of Western India from July 2021 to June 2022. Coagulation tests including prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), fibrinogen, and D-dimer were performed. Patients were monitored for bleeding manifestations. Results: Coagulation abnormalities were reported in 42.8% of the patients. Overall, prolonged aPTT was the most common coagulation abnormality (40.8%), followed by low fibrinogen (38.7%), raised D-dimer (31.2%), raised INR (26.0%) and prolonged PT (19.2%). Bleeding manifestations were present in 19.9% patients. PT, INR, aPTT and D-dimer levels were significantly higher (P<0.01) and fibrinogen level was significantly lower (P<0.001) in patients with bleeding compared to patients without bleeding. Patients with bleeding had a significantly higher rate of all coagulation abnormalities than patients without bleeding (P<0.01). Conclusions: Patients with bleeding showed a significantly higher frequency of coagulation abnormalities compared to patients without bleeding. Patients with dengue should be assessed for coagulation abnormalities.