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| ABSTRACT |
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| INTRODUCTION |
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In Taiwan, dengue epidemics have occurred for many decades.7 Among the recent dengue epidemics on this island, one outbreak was reported between 1987 and 1988 in southern Taiwan, and a small number of clustered cases of DF have been reported from this area ever since. A large dengue epidemic caused by DEN-2 virus occurred between June and December 2002 in the same regions where a dengue outbreak caused by DEN-1 virus had occurred in 19871988.8,9 There were more than 5,000 cases of symptomatic dengue infection during this outbreak, and seven patients with concurrent DHF and bacteremia were observed at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung, a 2,500-bed primary care and tertiary referral medical center in southern Taiwan. Failure in making a diagnosis of concurrent bacteremia infection in patients with DHF may lead to otherwise preventable morbidity and mortality. However, little is known about the risk factor(s) for acquisition of this dual infection.
The aim of the present study was to evaluate the clinical characteristics of patients with concurrent DHF/DSS and bacteremia and to identify risk factors for acquisition of such a dual infection. The identification of such risk factors may help clinicians start timely additional antibiotic therapy in patients with DHF/DSS.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Patients with a dual infection were those with both DHF/DSS and concurrent bacteremia. Concurrent bacteremia was defined as a positive bacterial culture of blood sampled from a patient less than 72 hours after he or she was hospitalized for DHF/DSS. We excluded patients with nosocomially acquired bacteremia (positive bacterial culture of blood sampled > 72 hours since admission) and those with indeterminate bacteremia, which was characterized as having only one of two sets of blood cultures positive for skin flora.
To determine the clinical characteristics of and risk factors for dual infection, patients with only DHF/DSS were grouped as controls. The controls received only supportive care, including platelet transfusions. Patients who had been treated with an empirical antibiotic before visiting Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung were excluded. Demographic characteristics, clinical manifestations, and laboratory data (peripheral white blood cell [WBC] count, platelet count, prothrombin time [PT], activated partial thromboplastin time [APTT], and alanine aminotransferase [ALT] level) at admission, serial hematocrit, and serum creatinine level, and clinical course and outcomes of patients with DHF/DSS alone and those with a dual infection were obtained from patient medical records for analyses. Information regarding microorganisms growing in blood culture and the time of initiation of antibiotic therapy was also obtained from patients with a dual infection.
Fever (temperature > 38°C) was found in all patients with DF, regardless of whether they had only DHF/DSS alone or a dual infection. A patient with DHF/DSS who lacked three or more of the five most frequently seen clinical manifestations other than fever in controls, or who had disturbed consciousness was defined as having unusual dengue manifestations. These unusual dengue manifestations were found in approximately 5% of the patients with only DHF/DSS. Acute renal failure was defined as an abrupt decrease in renal function within three days after admission to the hospital. Impaired liver function was defined as a sudden increase in the serum ALT level up to two-fold or more higher than the normal value (normal value < 40 U/L). Prolongation of the PT was defined as > 3 seconds than that of the control, and prolongation of APTT was defined as > 20% than that of the control. Leukocytosis was defined as a peripheral WBC count > 12.0 x 109 cells/L, leukopenia as a peripheral WBC count < 3.0 x 109 cells/L, and thrombocytopenia as a peripheral platelet count < 100 x 109 cells/L.
Statistical analyses. The Mann-Whitney U test was used for comparison of continuous variables, and Fishers exact test was used for comparison of dichromatic variables of patients with a dual infection and those with DHF/DSS alone. Variables found to be statistically significant in univariate analyses were entered into multivariate analysis using a logistic regression model to identify the independent risk factors for acquisition of a dual infection. A two tailed P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
| RESULTS |
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The differences in peripheral leukocytosis, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, peak hematocrit, PT and APTT prolongations, and elevated serum ALT levels were not significantly between patients with dual infection and those with DHF/DSS alone (Table 3
). However, five (two with grade II DHF and three with grade III DHF) of seven patients (71.4%) with a dual infection had acute renal failure. Four (two with grade II DHF, one with grade III DHF, and one with grade IV DHF) of 81 controls (4.9%) with available data had acute renal shutdown (P < 0.001). Of note, the four controls with acute renal failure all had active gastrointestinal bleeding.
Univariate analyses showed that in a comparison of patients with dual infection and those with only DHF/DSS, differences in mortality rate (28.5% versus 1.1%; P = 0.012), age (median = 70 versus 52 years; P = 0.007), prolonged fever (median duration of fever = 8 versus 4 days; P = 0.004), acute renal failure (71.4% versus 4.9%; P < 0.001), gastrointestinal bleeding (57.1% versus 20.4%; P = 0.047), altered consciousness (14.2% versus 1.1%; P = 0.012), unusual dengue manifestations (42.8% versus 5.3%; P = 0.010), and DSS (42.8% versus 3.2%; P = 0.004) were statistically significant. Multivariate analysis showed that acute renal failure (odds ratio [OR] = 51.45, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 4.35607.58, P = 0.002) and prolonged fever (> 5 days) (OR = 26.07, 95% CI = 1.78381.53, P = 0.017) were independent predictive factors for concurrent bacteremia in patients with DHF/DSS.
| DISCUSSION |
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Unlike the predominant pediatric patients with DHF/DSS seen in southeast Asia,46 all the patients with DHF/DSS in the present study were either young adults or elderly individuals. To our knowledge, this is the one of few detailed reports of DHF in the elderly.4,5,8,17,18 An elderly (
50 years old) age was previously reported to be a risk factor for mortality in patients with DF.17,18 In general, the aging-adherent co-morbidities and waning immunity pose a substantial risk for fatality in elderly patients with active infection.19,20 For the same reason, elderly individuals with a dengue virus infection are more likely to develop a critical condition, and were at risk for acquisition of bacterial coinfections, but not for concurrent bacteremia, as was specifically addressed in this study.
The clinical manifestations of 93 control patients were similar to those in other reported series.4,5,12 The infrequently encountered neurologic manifestations of DF, such as altered consciousness, convulsions, and coma, have been increasingly reported in recent years.2124 In an attempt to enhance the clinical diagnosis of a dual infection, purposefully designed unusual dengue manifestations, defined as a patient with DHF/DSS who lacked three or more of the five leading dengue manifestations observed in controls and/or who had disturbed consciousness, was used as a potential risk factor in the analysis in this study. Although unusual dengue manifestations were not an independent predictive factor for concurrent bacteremia in the present report, these deserve further study in other populations to determine whether unusual dengue manifestations are an applicable predictive factor for acquisition of concurrent bacteremia in patients with DHF/DSS because patients with a dual infection in this series were older (median age = 70 years for the dual infection group versus 52 years for the control group), and elderly patients infected with dengue virus might have atypical clinical presentations.
Prolonged fever and acute renal failure were independent predictive factors for dual infection in this study. Generally, DHF/DSS begins with a sudden increase in body temperature, and dengue viruses always disappear from the blood of the host an average of five days later, which is closely correlated with the disappearance of fever.4,25 Our study also suggests that patients with DHF/DSS who also have prolonged fever (> 5 days) are at high risk for concurrent bacteremia. Acute renal failure, a rarely encountered manifestation in patients with DHF,26 may result from excessive plasma leakage, massive active hemorrhage, or DSS.26,27
Rhabdomyolysis, an unusual complication in DF, may cause multiorgan failure in patients with DHF.28,29 Hemolysis and, perhaps, rhabdomyolysis particularly tend to develop in patients with an underlying glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency once they acquire DF, and these complications will always lead to acute renal failure.30 Taiwan has a low prevalence of G6PD deficiency of approximately 2.0%,31 and none of the patients in this series was tested for G6PD deficiency. With regard to the five cases of acute renal failure in our study, it is unclear whether the sudden shutdown of renal function results from the synergistic effect of bacteremia and DSS because shared proinflammatory mediators were found in each of these infection entities.32
As for the pathogens isolated from blood in bacteremic patients in this series, with the exception of one isolate of Rosemonas species and another isolate of K. ozaenae, the majority of the bacteria (three isolates of K. pneumoniae, one of M. lacunata, and one of E. faecalis) are normally found in the intestinal tract. It is reasonable to presume that most of the above mentioned bacteria invaded the bloodstream from the intestinal lumens of the patients because dengue virus infections may lead to disintegration of intestinal mucosal barrier, resulting in creation of a portal of entry for pathogens that normally inhabit the intestinal tract.33,34
There are some limitations in the present study. First, the small number of study cases with a dual infection makes statistical power quite small for multivariate analysis for predictive factors for concurrent bacteremia in patients with DHF/DSS. Second, it was conducted at a single medical center, and the patient population and clinical characteristics may be biased by referral pattern. Third, this study of exclusively adult patients makes it uncertain if the identified risk factors for concurrent bacteremia in DHF/DSS are applicable to pediatric patients. Further studies to elucidate more information regarding clinical characteristics of dual infection are warranted. Because of the possible overlapping clinical manifestations of both infections, concurrent bacteremia is easily overlooked in a dengue endemic setting. Failure to make a timely diagnosis of dual infection and starting early additional antibiotic therapy accordingly will put the affected patients in jeopardy. In conclusion, to avoid otherwise preventable mortality and morbidity, clinicians should be alert to the potential for a concurrent bacteremia when facing a patient with DHF/DSS with a prolonged fever (>5 days) and/or acute renal failure, and therefore initiate a timely additional antimicrobial treatment until blood cultures are negative.
Received July 17, 2004. Accepted for publication August 30, 2004.
Acknowledgments: We thank the staff of the Infection Control Team at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center for their assistance in collection of data for this study.
Authors addresses: Ing-Kit Lee and Jien-Wei Liu, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center, Taiwan, Republic of China. Fax: 866-7-73220402, E-mail: 88b0{at}adm.cgmh.org.tw. Kuender D. Yang, Department of Pediatrics, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Reprint requents: Dr. Jien-Wei Liu, Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital-Kaohsiung Medical Center, No. 123, Ta Pei Road, Niao Sung Hsiang, Kaohsuing Hsien, Taiwan 833, Republic of China.
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