Abdominal Ultrasound Findings In Pediatric Patients Having Dengue Fever.

Background: Dengue is an arboviral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes and usually presents with fever, myalgia, maculopapular rash, anorexia, lymphad-enopathy, retro-orbital pain and hemorrhagic manifestation. The diagnosis is done by fourfold rise in IgG or IgM antibody titers in paired serum samples or detection of non-structural protein (NS1) by immunoassay. Imaging in the form of ultrasound abdomen is done in these patients to diagnose presence of pleural effusion, ascites and gall bladder wall edema. Computerized tomography can be done in cases with neurological manifestations or in cases where intracranial hemorrhage is suspected. Aims and Objectives: To find out ultrasound abdomen abnormalities in chil-dren with dengue fever. Materials And Methods: This was a prospective observational study undertak-en in the department of pediatrics of a tertiary care medical college situated in an urban area. 80 children with dengue fever as diagnosed on the basis of serology were included in this study on the basis of a predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Ultrasound abdomen done was done in all the cases and frequency of ul-trasound abnormalities such as pleural effusion, ascites, gall bladder wall edema and hepatosplenomegaly was found out. Results: Out of these 80 cases there were 55 (68.75 %) boys and 25 (31.25 %) girls with a M:F ratio of 1: 0.45. The mean age of boys and girls was found to be 12.12 +/- 2.98 years and 11.44 +/- 3.85 years respectively. Out of 60 studied cases non severe dengue was seen in 36 (45%) patients whereas 29 (36.25%) patients had non-severe dengue with warning signs and remaining 15 (31.25%) patients had severe dengue. The incidence of Gall bladder wall edema, pleural effusion and ascites was more common in patients with non-severe dengue with warning signs and severe dengue and the difference was found to be statistically highly signifi-cant (P=0.0001) Conclusion: Gall bladder wall edema, pleural effusion and ascites are common findings in cases with severe dengue. Their presence in early stages may indicated possibility of eventual progression to severe dengue