Dengue patients have higher stroke risk, especially in first 2 months

Patients with dengue fever have a higher risk for stroke than those without the fever, especially in the first 2 months following diagnosis, according to researchers.

Data show that clinicians must be aware of dengue’s potential impact on stroke risk and treat patients accordingly, they wrote in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

“The effect of dengue on stroke may be acute rather than chronic,” researcher Hao-Ming Li, MD, of the radiology department at E-Da Hospital in Taiwan, and colleagues wrote. “Clinicians in dengue-endemic areas should be aware of this association, especially for patients with dengue who have neurologic deficits or for patients with stroke who have unexplained fever.”

To explore the potential effect of dengue on stroke risk, the researchers assessed patient data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, which covered about 99% of Taiwan’s population between 1996 and 2013. Li and colleagues included all cases of dengue fever and dengue hemorrhagic fever diagnosed in hospitals between 2000 and 2012. They matched 13,787 patients diagnosed with either type of dengue fever 1:1 with hospital patients not diagnosed with dengue.

The overall rate of stroke among patients with dengue fever was 5.33 cases per 1,000 person-years, compared with 3.72 cases per 1,000 person-years among uninfected patients (HR = 1.16; 95% CI, 1.01-1.32). The difference was greatest within the first 2 months following dengue diagnosis. In that period, there were 25.53 stroke cases per 1,000 person-years among patients with dengue fever (HR = 2.49; 95% CI, 1.48-4.18). The risk compared with that of uninfected patients then declined as follow-up time passed, Li and colleagues said.

The researchers concluded that their work could prompt more studies on the dengue-stroke link.

“Our findings may help with clinical risk evaluation and may serve as a basis for further investigation of the pathogenesis of dengue-related stroke,” they wrote. – by Joe Green

Disclosures: The authors report no relevant financial disclosures.