Cardiac Manifestation in Dengue Fever.

AIM AND OBJECTIVE: To study the cardiac manifestations of the dengue fever.

METHODS: This one year descriptive study was undertaken at KLES Dr. Prabhakar Kore Hospital and Medical Research Centre, Belgaum under the Department of Medicine. A total of 120 patients with either dengue IgM or IgM and IgG were studied. The assessment of cardiac manifestations was done based on electrocardiogram, 2D echocardiography and cardiac enzymes.

RESULTS: Of the 120 patients, 85 (70.83%) were males and the male to female ratio was 2.4:1. The mean age of the patients was 33.02 ± 12.71 years. The commonest clinical presentation was myalgia (97.5%) followed by fever (92.5%). On clinical examination 33.33% of the patients had petecheia and only 9 patients having active bleeding manifestation at the time of presentation. A raised CK-MB and Troponin I was observed in 33.3% and 26.7% patients ECG findings revealed normal rhythm among 95% with 15.8% of them having an abnormal heart rate. Rhythm disturbance was noted in 5% of the patients with AV block being the most common (66.67%). Cardiac manifestation in the form of myocarditis was observed in 37.50% of the patients with a positive correlation with the severity of the dengue fever defined as by W.H.O. criteria.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients with dengue fever are at high risk of developing myocarditis and rhythm disturbance and therefore require a close cardiac monitoring.