Abstract
From November 2007 to April 2008, 196 patients were admitted to the Short Stay Unit
and/or Intensive Care Unit of the Instituto de Puericultura e Pediatria Martagão Gesteira
with clinical presentations suggesting dengue fever. Included in this retrospective
case series are 181 patients who had laboratory confirmation of dengue fever; 51.9%
(94/181) had classical dengue fever and 48.1% (87/181) had dengue hemorrhagic fever.
Patients ranged from 4 months to 15 years of age; the median age being 9 years (mean
± SD; 8.5 ± 3.6 years). There were 90 cases with pleuropulmonary manifestations: 30
of 94 cases with classical dengue fever and 60 of 87 cases with dengue hemorrhagic
fever. In descending order, the changes found were pleural effusion, elevation of
the diaphragm, and pleural opacity. Radiological manifestations appeared a median
of 6 days after hospitalization (range, 3 to 11 days). In 89/90 (98.9%) cases with
pleuropulmonary manifestations, early therapeutic approaches resulted in resolution
of clinical and radiologic findings.
Keywords
Dengue fever - hemorrhagic - classical dengue fever - chest radiography - adolescents
