The Usefulness of Clinical-Practice-Based Laboratory Data in Facilitating the Diagnosis of Dengue Illness. (19th December 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Liu, Jien-Wei; Lee, Ing-Kit; Wang, Lin; Chen, Rong-Fu; Yang, Kuender D.
• Other Names: Sambri Vittorio Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: BioMed research international. Volume 2013(2013)
• Publication Date: 2013-12-19
• Subjects: Medicine -- Periodicals; Biology -- Periodicals; Biotechnology -- Periodicals; Life sciences -- Periodicals; 610.5
• DOI: 10.1155/2013/198797
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2314-6133

Abstract

Abstract : Alertness to dengue and making a timely diagnosis is extremely important in the treatment of dengue and containment of dengue epidemics. We evaluated the complementary role of clinical-practice-based laboratory data in facilitating suspicion/diagnosis of dengue. One hundred overall dengue (57 dengue fever [DF] and 43 dengue hemorrhagic fever [DHF]) cases and another 100 nondengue cases (78 viral infections other than dengue, 6 bacterial sepsis, and 16 miscellaneous diseases) were analyzed. We separately compared individual laboratory variables (platelet count [PC], prothrombin time [PT], activated partial thromboplastin time [APTT], alanine aminotransferase [ALT], and aspartate aminotransferase [AST]) and varied combined variables of DF and/or DHF cases with the corresponding ones of nondengue cases. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) in the diagnosis of DF and/or DHF were measured based on these laboratory variables. While trade-off between sensitivity and specificity, and/or suboptimal PPV/NPV was found at measurements using these variables, prolonged APTT + normal PT + PC < 100 × 10 9 cells/L had a favorable sensitivity, specificity, PPV, and NPV in diagnosis of DF and/or DHF. In conclusion, these data suggested that prolonged APTT + normal PT + PC < 100 × 10 9 cells/L is useful in evaluating the likelihood of DF and/or DHF.