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  • Title: Clinicians' diagnostic practice of dengue infections.
    Author: Ng CF, Lum LC, Ismail NA, Tan LH, Tan CP.
    Journal: J Clin Virol; 2007 Nov; 40(3):202-6. PubMed ID: 17928264.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND: Difficulties in the classification of dengue infection have been documented. Such difficulties could be due to the low awareness of the World Health Organization diagnostic guidelines among clinicians. OBJECTIVE: To study the diagnostic practices of clinicians in classifying patients as dengue fever (DF) or dengue haemorrhagic fever (DHF)/dengue shock syndrome (DSS) at the time of discharge during an outbreak. METHODS: A prospective descriptive study of clinical features and disease classification in adult and pediatric dengue patients in the University of Malaya Medical Centre. RESULTS: Five hundred and twenty adult and 191 pediatric patients were enrolled. Thrombocytopenia and evidence of plasma leakage were present in 8% of adult and 19% of pediatric patients. Of these, 93% and 49%, respectively, were given the discharge diagnoses of DF instead of DHF/DSS. Hemoconcentration, serous effusion and thrombocytopenia were not recognized in clinicians' discharge diagnosis of DHF/DSS for adult patients. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve suggested a lack of consistency in the use of WHO guidelines in establishing DHF/DSS in adult patients, while implying otherwise for pediatric patients. CONCLUSION: DHF/DSS is an under-recognized condition by clinicians managing these patients. This can affect the case fatality rate of DHF/DSS and the economic burden of the disease. The lack of awareness in disease manifestations especially plasma leakage, can lead to delayed recognition of DHF/DSS.
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