The prevalence of hypocalcemia in children with dengue infection: A 1-year cross-sectional study

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: According to WHO, Dengue is fast emerging pandemic-prone viral disease affecting mainly urban poor areas in tropical and subtropical countries. One of the important electrolyte disturbance documented in critical phase of severe dengue is hypocalcaemia. Hypocalcaemia is seen in cases with severe dengue and has been claimed to be linked with the immune response and severity of infection. OBJECTIVES: To study the prevalence of hypocalcaemia in children suffering from dengue infection. To study the association between the degree of hypocalcaemia and the severity of the illness. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: This study was a one year cross sectional study, conducted in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS AND MATERIAL: 100 subjects aged 1 month to 18 years suffering from dengue fever were included in the study. iCa and other biochemical parameters were done for all the subjects within 24 hour of admission. The collected data was coded and analyzed using ANOVA and chi-square tests. RESULTS: The mean age was 9.65 yr. The subjects were classified as per 2009 WHO criteria. The prevalence of iCa was found to be 59.0%. 11.7% subjects with dengue without warning signs, 83.7% subjects of dengue with warning signs and 100% of the subjects of severe dengue had hypocalcaemia. CONCLUSIONS: This study proves the association of the hypocalcaemia with the severity of dengue infection in the paediatric population and potentiates the use of ionic calcium as a biochemical marker to detect severe dengue infection early.