Pleuropulmonary manifestations of dengue fever in children and adolescents

Abstract

From November 2007 to April 2008, 196 patients were admitted to the Short Stay Unit and/or Intensive Care Unit of the Instituto de Puericultura e Pediatria Martagao Gesteira with clinical presentations suggesting dengue fever. Included in this retrospective case series are 181 patients who had laboratory confirmation of dengue fever; 51.9% (94/181) had classical dengue fever and 48.1% (87/181) had dengue hemorrhagic fever. Patients ranged from 4 months to 15 years of age; the median age being 9 years (mean ± SD; 8.5 ± 3.6 years). There were 90 cases with pleuropulmonary manifestations: 30 of 94 cases with classical dengue fever and 60 of 87 cases with dengue hemorrhagic fever. In descending order, the changes found were pleural effusion, elevation of the diaphragm, and pleural opacity. Radiological manifestations appeared a median of 6 days after hospitalization (range, 3 to 11 days). In 89/90 (98.9%) cases with pleuropulmonary manifestations, early therapeutic approaches resulted in resolution of clinical and radiologic findings.