Prevalence of derangement of LFTs in dengue fever at tertiary care hospital: A cross-sectional study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55629/pakjpathol.v37i3.1038Abstract
Objective: The involvement of liver is a common feature of dengue fever, and the liver enzymes are often raised, sometimes to a high degree. The objective of this study was to find out the prevalence and profile of liver function test abnormalities in the laboratory diagnosed patients with dengue fever.
Material and Methods: The Cross-sectional study was done at the Department of Medicine, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre, Karachi, Pakistan. In a period of Six months. Laboratory confirmed dengue fever patients aged 18-60 years were selected using non-probability consecutive sampling and a total of 150 cases were taken in the study. Dengue infection was diagnosed by positive NS1 antigen and/or dengue IgM antibody test. SPSS version 26.0 was used to analyze data and p value < 0.05 was taken as significant.
Results: The mean age was 34.6 (SD: 11.2) years, and 92 (61.3%) participants were male. Overall, 128 (85.3%) patients were deranged with LFT. The most common abnormality was elevated AST in 119 (79.3%) patients followed by elevated ALT in 104 (69.3%), elevated ALP in 38 (25.3%) and hyperbilirubinemia in 24 (16.0%). The abnormalities of LFTs were significantly higher in patients who presented on days 5–7 compared with those who presented within 4 days of the illness (93.3% versus 73.8%, p=0.001).
Conclusion: Deranged liver function tests were prevalent in dengue fever and the most important biochemical abnormalities were of AST elevation and AST predominance.
Keywords: Alanine transaminase, Aspartate aminotransferases, Dengue, Hyperbilirubinemia, Liver function tests.
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