Clinical Evaluation of Febrile Thrombocytopenia in Western Rajasthan - a Hospital-based Study

A number of patients of febrile thrombocytopenia increase during monsoon and postmonsoon period. Diseases like dengue fever, malaria, chikungunya fever, etc. are responsible for the clustering of febrile thrombocytopenia cases during this period. The diagnosis of fever with thrombocytopenia cases can be challenging and physicians should be aware of the regional and endemic seasonal cause of this syndrome.

It is a prospective observational study.

The study included 103 consecutive patients. The patients admitted with acute febrile illness defined by a duration of less than 2 weeks with thrombocytopenia were evaluated.

The present study included 103 consecutive cases of febrile thrombocytopenia. Out of these, 71.84% were male and 28.16% were female. The most common etiology for febrile thrombocytopenia was dengue fever (44.66%) and malaria (31.06%). Among clinical evaluation of the cases, fever was the inclusion criteria. Myalgia was the most common symptom found after fever, which was observed in 83.5% of the patients. The most common bleeding manifestation was petechiae/ purpura (12.62%) followed by hematuria (6.80%). Renal dysfunction was present in all 8(100%) cases of sepsis, followed by 14(43.75%) cases of malaria. All sepsis cases also had liver dysfunction, followed by 91.3% cases in dengue fever and 90.62 % cases in malaria had liver dysfunction.

The study showed that acute febrile thrombocytopenia is an important seasonal syndrome. The common causes are dengue fever and malaria. Early identification of these diseases and prompt treatment decreases complications and reduces mortality.