The study of clinical profile and vitamin B 12 in dengue fever patients

Background: Dengue is an acute infectious febrile illness characterised by thrombocytopenia and platelet dysfunction leading to bleeding manifestations. Vitamin B12 is required for platelet production in the bone marrow. So, deficiency of vitamin B12 in dengue patients can have severe thrombocytopenia. Aims and Objective: Study was aimed to know the clinical profile of dengue fever patients and to correlate serum vitamin B12 level with severity of thrombocytopenia, platelet transfusion and duration of hospital stay. Materials and Methods: This observational study was done on dengue patients for period of 3 months January 2020 to March 2020. Confirmed cases of dengue fever with NS 1 Ag positive & Ig M antibody positive were included in the study. Patient with sepsis, underlying malignancy, autoimmune disorder, hematological disorder, drugs causing thrombocytopenia were excluded from the study. Appropriate statistical methods were applied. Results: Total 50 subjects were included. Majority of subjects were in the age group 31 to 40 years. 50% were males and females respectively. Most common clinical feature was fever and bleeding manifestations. Mean Vitamin B12 was significantly lower among those with severe thrombocytopenia and highest among those with no thrombocytopenia., there was significant difference in mean Platelet transfusion and duration of hospital stay with respect to severity of Platelet count. Conclusion: Dengue fever patients with vitamin B 12 deficiency had moderate to severe thrombocytopenia and more bleeding manifestations. Those patients required more platelet transfusion and increased duration of hospital stay.