Evaluation of Hematological Parameters in Dengue Patients of Peshawar

Abstract

Background: Dengue fever is caused by a virus called Dengue virus. A positive sense RNA virus belongs to flaviviridae family having four serotypes. The word “Dengue” is derived from Swahilli language which means seizure-like cramps. Human-to-human transmission is through vector (Mosquito) Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Dengue virus was discovered in 1779 in Batavia. Dengue fever is differentiated into Dengue Fever, Dengue hemorrhagic fever, and Dengue shock syndrome. Material and Methods: Dengue-suspected patients were screened for Dengue virus. Among these 120 were found positive for dengue virus. All the patients were screened using the NS1 strip method. A complete blood count test was performed for all the dengue-positive patients for evaluation of hematological changes. Data were entered in Microsoft Excel 2020, and further analyzed through SPSS-22. Results: Among the dengue suspected patients 120 were found positive for dengue virus infection. Out of 120 patients 76(63%) were male and 44(36%) were female. 68% of the patients were in the middle age group (16-40 years), 7.5% of patients were lower age group (1-15 years) and 24.1% of patients were in the old age group (41-70 years). CBC results showed variation in hematological parameters. 41% of patients were found with low platelet count while in 73% of patients, WBC count was decreased below the normal range. A small portion of the patients showed low hemoglobin levels. Neutrophil levels also decreased in more than 70% of patients. In a few cases, the hematocrit level was out of range. Conclusion: The study was conducted for the evaluation of hematological changes that occurred in patients infected by dengue. According to our study on dengue viral infection, a total of 120 patients were included of which 76(63%) were males and 44(36%) were females. Male frequency was higher than females affected by dengue fever. The median age group in our study was most affected by dengue fever. Platelet counts were low in 41% of infected patients, WBC levels were decreased than normal ranges in 73% and neutrophil levels were also affected which shows similarities with previous studies.