High sensitivity CRP maybe higher in children suffering from dengue, Study says

The study is published in the International Journal of Pediatric Research.

Hs-CRP, being used in this study to assess the level of CRP, has low detection threshold of measurement as compared to conventional CRP. Hs-CRP has been evaluated in children with asthma, nephrotic syndrome and type 1 diabetes mellitus.

However, no study has been done in children to see hs-CRP levels in dengue patients. Hence, Aaradhana and associates from the Department of Pediatrics, Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, University College of Medical Sciences, India planned this study to see the utility of hs-CRP in identification of severe dengue in children.

Objectives of this study were to compare hs-CRP levels between children with dengue and healthy comparison groups and between severe and non-severe dengue cases.

The authors conducted this descriptive cross-sectional study to compare hs-CRP levels between a group of 31 children under 12 year of age with dengue (positive NS1 antigen and/IgM ELISA for dengue) and healthy comparison group and between severe and non-severe dengue cases. Hs-CRP levels were assessed in sera of hospitalized dengue cases and healthy controls.

The results revealed that-

a. Median (IQR) hs-CRP levels were 46.59 (34.8, 67.0) mg/L and 0.530 (0.00, 2.79) mg/L respectively in dengue cases and healthy controls which was statistically significant (p < 0.001).

b. Median (IQR) hs-CRP levels in severe and non-severe dengue patients were 46.59 (34.77, 68.43) and 46.67 (24.33, 63.79) mg/L respectively which was statistically not significant (p = 0.85).

Hence, the authors concluded that " Hs-CRP level was significantly higher in dengue children as compared to healthy controls. But no significant difference in hs-CRP level was found between severe and non-severe dengue patients."