SIGNIFICANCE OF SEROLOGICAL MARKERS AND PLATELET COUNT IN DIAGNOSING DENGUE INFECTION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NS1 ANTIGEN

Dr Mahesh Chavan; Dr Udit Aggarwal

Volume : IX, Issue : III, March - 2020

SIGNIFICANCE OF SEROLOGICAL MARKERS AND PLATELET COUNT IN DIAGNOSING DENGUE INFECTION WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO NS1 ANTIGEN

Dr Mahesh Chavan, Dr Udit Aggarwal

Abstract :

INTRODUCTION: Dengue , a viral infection with a potentially fatal outcome ,it has become an endemic in India and its outeak occurs every year. since the mainstay of diagnosis is antibody detection which has high false positive and false negative values, newer parameters are upcoming for diagnosis. AIM: To study the importance of newer accessory parameter platelet count in diagnosing dengue infections MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a retrospective study conducted in general medicine department of S Nijalingappa medical college and HSK hospital, Bagalkot. 4ml blood sample collected from admitted patients suspected with dengue fever and the samples screened for NS1 antigen by immunochromatography method and was compared to the platelet count. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS : Appropriate statistical tests and software were used and calculated accordingly RESULTS : Out of 152 samples tested , 36 were positive for NS1 antigen and 25 were positive for IgM and these were compared to platelet counts of the respective patient CONCLUSION : Inclusion of NS1 antigen in the diagnosis algorithm increases the chances of early diagnosis and helps in anticipating fatal complications associated with dengue. Thrombocytopenia was found more consistently in patients with dengue positive than with dengue negative.