Utility of C-Reactive Protein Levels for Early Prediction of Dengue Severity in Adults

Dengue has broad clinical presentation with unpredictable clinical evolution and outcome. We aimed to evaluate the utility of C-reactive protein (CRP) levels for distinguishing between mild and severe cases in the early phase of the dengue illness. We retrospectively evaluated adults with dengue from 2006 to 2014, according to 1997 and 2009 World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for severity. Of 191 included patients, 32.9% had nonshock dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), 3.1% dengue shock syndrome (DSS), and 7.9% severe dengue. The risk of DHF/DSS and severe dengue is significantly related to the increasing levels of CRP. Of 191 patients, 97 had CRP levels measured during the febrile (days 1–3); 85 during the critical (days 4–6); and 9 during the convalescent (days 7–10) illness phases. During the febrile phase, there was significant higher CRP level for DSS versus DF/nonshock DHF and severe dengue versus nonsevere dengue, with CRP cutoff level 30.1 mg/L (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), 0.938; 100% sensitivity, 76.3% specificity) and 24.2 mg/L (AUC, 0.717; 70% sensitivity, 71.3% specificity), respectively. Our study highlights the utility of the CRP levels in early prediction of DSS and severe dengue in adult patients.