European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Introduction: Dengue infection can cause a wide spectrum of clinical outcomes. The severe clinical manifestations occur sufficiently late in the disease course, during day 4–6 of illness. Markers of inflammation may be useful biomarkers. There exists a paucity  of research on high sensitivity  C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels in dengue children. We investigated the value of hs-CRP to predict dengue disease severity in children and the difference in hs-CRP levels between dengue patients and healthy controls.
Materials and Methods: This  study was conducted in the Department of Paediatrics, Madha Medical College and Research  Institute, Chennai (Oct 2021- May 2022).
Results: The study included 31 pediatric dengue patients. The median (IQR) hs-CRP in dengue patients was 46.59 mg/L (34.8, 67.0). The median (IQR) hs-CRP in healthy controls was 0.530 (0.00-2.7) mg/L. The difference was statistically significant (P < 0.001). Median (IQR) hs-CRP in severe and non-severe dengue patients were 46.59 (34.77, 68.43) and 46.67 (24.33, 63.79) mg/L respectively which was statistically not significant (p = 0.85).
Conclusions: In summary, significantly higher  hs-CRP levels were present  in dengue  children as compared to healthy controls. But there was no significant difference in hs-CRP levels between severe and non-severe dengue patients.