Do the small blood cells have a big impact as prognosticators in dengue – A study

Introduction: Dengue is an arboviral disease endemic in India. Severe dengue has a high morbidity. The progression to severe dengue may be diagnosed by clinical and lab parameters, are of the useful lab tests is platelet count, as thrombocytopenia is a consistent feature in dengue. There is confusion about the role thrombocytopenia in dengue. Our study aims to study the platelet count patterns and its relevance to severity of dengue. Materials and Methods: We conducted a study on 132 dengue positive cases with relevant hematology data in November 2016. Results: We had predominance of young people and males in the study group. Thrombocytopenia was uniform across the ages and sexes. Severe thrombocytopenia constituted 56%, had significant association with atypical lymphocytosis, rise in hematocrit and antibody patterns. Conclusion: Platelet counts are marker of dengue, can serve as predicators of severity, platelet count monitoring helps guide transfusion therapy. Keywords: Dengue, Platelet count, Total count, Differential count, Hematocrit, Serology.