Early abdominal sonographic findings in patients with dengue fever

This study was conducted to evaluate the early sonographic findings in dengue hemorrhagic fever.

From July 2002 to September 2002, 86 patients were referred to our center with suspected dengue fever during an outbreak of the disease in Taiwan. All the patients underwent immediate abdominal sonography when they arrived at our emergency room. The diagnosis of dengue fever was subsequently confirmed by serology in 65 patients.

All our patients had type 2 dengue fever, as confirmed by serologic tests. The sonographic features included a thickened gallbladder wall in 38 patients (59%), ascites in 24 patients (37%), splenomegaly in 22 patients (34%), and pleural effusion in 21 patients (32%); pleural effusion was either right-sided or bilateral.

Abdominal sonography can be used as a first-line imaging modality in patients with suspected dengue fever to detect early signs suggestive of the disease prior to obtaining serologic confirmation test results, especially in a dengue fever epidemic area.