Clinical and laboratory profile of dengue in the elderly.
BACKGROUND
Dengue is the most rapidly spreading mosquito-borne viral disease in the world with a 30-fold increase in incidence in the last 50 years. Approximately, 50 million dengue infections occur annually.


OBJECTIVE
To study the various clinical and laboratory manifestations of dengue in the elderly and observe for any variations in IgM titer elevation with progression of age.


METHODS
Retrospective observational study.


METHODS
Medical charts of all patients admitted to the Division of Geriatrics of the institute during study period were reviewed for collection of demographic, clinical, and laboratory information. The diagnosis of dengue was made based on positive dengue IgM ELISA. An elderly patient referred to one whose age was ≥60 years.


RESULTS
Fever and myalgia were noted to be the most common clinical manifestation with only four patients presenting with overt bleeding manifestations. Only one patient presented in delirium and there was no case fatality. Thrombocytopenia was the single most common hematological abnormality noted. Hyponatremia was found to be prevalent in a majority of the patients and were symptomatic in more than half of them. There have been very few studies done worldwide on the varied clinical manifestations of dengue in the elderly.
Department of Geriatrics, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India.
Rahul
R
Unnikrishnan
Department of Internal Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India.
Baiju P
BP
Faizal
Department of Geriatrics, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India.
Priya
P
Vijayakumar
Department of Geriatrics, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India.
George
G
Paul
Department of Internal Medicine, Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Kochi, Kerala, India.
R N
RN
Sharma
Dengue; India; Kerala; elderly; geriatric