Association of metabolic factors with dengue viral infection on admission triage which predict its clinical course during Lahore dengue epidemic.

OBJECTIVE The study was done to identify metabolic factors which were associated with an increased risk of dengue haemorrhagic fever in clinically diagnosed patients of dengue viral infection. METHODS 563 patients with dengue viral infection that presented to 3 tertiary care hospitals of Lahore were included in this study, out of which approximately half of the patients were diagnosed as dengue haemorrhagic fever. RESULTS A total of 563 patients with 263(46.7%) dengue fever and 300(53.3%) dengue haemorrhagic fever patients were studied. The mean age of patients was 48.48 ± 20.07 years. In patients younger than 60 (n=355), 171 patients had DF and 184 had DHF, while 116 patients above 60 years had DHF and 92 had DF (n=208). The presence of metabolic risk factors such as diabetes (OR = 2.146), hypertension (OR =1.65), diabetes and hypertension (OR =3.56), abnormal liver function tests (OR = 2.27), abnormal renal function tests (OR = 2.282) all increased the risk of DHF relative to DF. CONCLUSIONS The study showed that metabolic factors especially diabetes with and without hypertension are important risk factors for the development of DHF.