THE VALUE OF PLATELET AND LEUCOCYTE COUNTS IN EARLY DIAGNOSIS OF DENGUE FEVER IN CHILDREN

Nguyễn Ngọc Rạng, Tôn Quang Chánh

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Abstract

Background: A complete blood count (CBC) is an essential test for the diagnosis and monitoring of dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF). Objective: To determine the proper time for doing the CBC to make the most accurate diagnosis of  DHF. Materials and methods: Subjects including 909 dengue patients with dengue (+), from 1-14 years old, were extracted from the medical records stored at An Giang hospital in the dengue vaccine research program of Sanofi company. The CBC including platelets, white blood cells (WBC), percentage of neutrophils, percentage of lymphocytes and hematocrit was done on the day of admission. Results: A total of 909 patients had a CBC, of which day 2 had 65, day 3 had 212, day 4 had 312, day 5 had 235, and day 6 had 68 patients. The number of platelets gradually decreased between day 3 and day 6 of the disease. On day 4, using the platelet cut-off  of ≤ 120000/mm3, the sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis of dengue fever were  52% and 82%, respectively. Using the WBC cut-off of ≤ 5000/mm3, the sensitivity and specificity on day 3 were 54% and 74% respectively. On day 4, the sensitivity and specificity for dengue fever were 57% and 61%, respectively. Conclusion: The proper time for doing CBC (platelet, WBC) to make an accurate diagnosis of dengue fever is on day 4 of the onset of fever.

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References

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