HYPOCHOLESTEROLEMIA AS A PREDICTOR OF DISEASE SEVERITY IN DENGUE FEVER

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the difference between total cholesterol (TC) of dengue fever (DF) and dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) patients and also between DHF patients with favourable (DHF I and II) and adverse (DHF III and IV) outcome. Methodology: This comparative cross – sectional study was conducted in the Department of Medicine, Mayo Hospital, Lahore, from August to November 2012. The study comprised of 100 febrile patients with positive dengue serology. TC was measured on the admission day. The patients were observed during admission period for clinical outcome i.e. DF and DHF. DHF patients were graded as I – IV and grouped as favourable (I and II) and adverse (III and IV) outcome. Results: Out of 100 patients included in the study, 64 were males and 36 were females with mean age 33.03 KEMU / Mayo Hospital, Lahore ± 14.5 years and mean TC 3.02 ± 0.88 mmol/L. The 63 DF and 37 DHF patients had mean ages of 30.21 ± 12.7 and 37.84 ± 16.21years respectively (p-value 0.017) and mean TC 3.43 ± 0.79 and 2.34 ± 0.56 mmol/L respectively (p-value 0.000). M:F for DF and DHF was 2:1 and 1.47:1 respectively (p-value 0.001). Among 37 DHF patients, there were 16 DHF I, 8 DHF II, 10 DHF III and 3 DHF IV patients. For DHF I – IV, mean TC was 2.77 ± 0.45, 2.16 ± 0.33, 2.05 ± 0.35 and 1.49 ± 0.35 mmol/L respectively. DHF patients with favourable and adverse outcome had mean TC 2.55 ± 0.5 and 1.92 ± 0.42 mmol/l respectively (p = value 0.000). Conclusion: Low serum TC strongly correlated with disease severity in dengue fever patients