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.