Establishment of SMS Dengue Severity Score

Area of Science:

• Infectious Diseases
• Clinical Medicine
• Public Health

Background:

• Dengue infection rapidly progresses to life-threatening conditions.
• Effective prediction of dengue severity is crucial for timely intervention.
• Current methods may lack practicality for rapid clinical assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a practical scoring system for predicting dengue infection severity.
• To utilize clinical profiles and routine laboratory tests for severity assessment.
• To differentiate between dengue fever (DF), dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), and dengue shock syndrome (DSS).

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional observational study involving 500 dengue patients.
• Collection of patient demographics, clinical symptoms, and laboratory results.
• Development of a scoring system based on identified clinical and laboratory predictors.

Main Results:

• Patients with DHF and DSS exhibited higher scores correlating with worsening clinical features and laboratory values.
• Key predictors of severity included older age, elevated WBC count, increased hematocrit, prolonged prothrombin time, decreased platelets, and organ involvement.
• The scoring system ranged from 0-12, with scores 0-3 for DF, 4-8 for DHF, and 9-12 for DSS.
• The system correctly classified original severity grades in 63% of cases.

Conclusions:

• The developed dengue infection severity score effectively classifies patients into DF, DHF, or DSS categories.
• This scoring system facilitates rapid assessment of dengue infections.
• Early and accurate categorization enables prompt initiation of appropriate treatment protocols.