title: Neurological complications of dengue fever: Experience from a tertiary center of north India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dengue, an acute viral disease transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, is highly endemic in many tropical and subtropical areas of the world. Neurological complications of dengue infection have been observed more frequently in the recent past and some studies highlighted varied neurological complications arising in the course of dengue illness. In this retrospective study, we report various neurological complications observed during the last 2 years in patients of dengue fever.
  
  
  METHODS
  The patients presenting with neurological complications with positive serology (IgM antibody) for dengue infection were consecutively recruited from the Department of Neurology/Medicine from a tertiary center of Lucknow, India. These patients were subjected to a detailed clinical evaluation, laboratory assessment including blood count, hematocrit, coagulation parameters, biochemical assays, serology for dengue fever, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay for human immunodeficiency virus and other relevant investigations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Twenty-six patients with neurological complications associated with confirmed dengue infection were observed during the last 2 years. Eighteen of these patients were male. Of the 26 patients, 10 patients were suffering from brachial neuritis, four patients had encephalopathy, three patients were consistent with the diagnosis of Guillain Barre syndrome, three patients had hypokalemic paralysis associated with dengue fever and two patients had acute viral myositis. Opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome was diagnosed in two patients, myelitis in one patient and acute disseminated encephalo-myelitis also in one patient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dengue fever was associated with widespread neurological complications. Brachial neuritis and opsoclonus-myoclonus syndrome were observed for the first time in this study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chhatrapati Sahuji Maharaj Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Pawan
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.forename: Ravindra Kumar
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.forename: Veerendra
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Atam
authors.forename: Maneesh Kumar
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: Hardeep Singh
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Mehrotra