Dengue fever test

Dengue fever is a relatively serious viral infectious disease. Especially in the summer, the number of dengue fever patients will increase significantly because the main way of spreading dengue fever is mosquito bites. Dengue fever is spread by a mosquito called Aedes, and there are many symptoms caused by dengue fever, such as eye pain, headache, fever, etc. Severe dengue fever can be life-threatening to the patient, so what routine examinations should dengue fever patients undergo?

1. Routine inspection

(1) Peripheral blood picture: The total white blood cell count of dengue fever patients decreases at the onset of the disease, which is particularly obvious during the rash stage. The percentage of neutrophils also decreases, with a significant nuclear left shift and abnormal lymphocytes. The blood picture returns to normal one week after the fever subsides.

(2) Urinalysis may show a small amount of protein, red blood cells, white blood cells, and sometimes casts.

2. Virus Isolation

Blood is collected from early-stage patients and inoculated into the Aedes albopictus cell line (C6/36). The virus is isolated and identified by specific neutralization test or hemagglutination inhibition test.

3. Serum immunological examination

ELISA is used to detect specific IgM antibodies in the patient's serum, and a positive result helps to make an early and clear diagnosis of dengue fever. If dengue virus antigen is detected in the patient's serum, it can also serve as a basis for a clear diagnosis.

4. Reverse transcription "RT-PCR" detection

Dengue virus RNA in patient serum has higher sensitivity than virus isolation and can be used for early rapid diagnosis and serotype identification, but it requires high technical skills and its specificity and repeatability need to be further improved.

5. Others

In cases of dengue hemorrhagic fever, hemoconcentration, prolonged bleeding and clotting time, elevated serum aspartate aminotransferase, prolonged prothrombin time, electrolyte imbalance, decreased blood albumin, and metabolic acidosis may also occur. Various coagulation factors were slightly decreased, fibrinogen was decreased, and fibrinogen degradation products were slightly to moderately increased.