Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The AST/platelet ratio index (APRI) is a well-researched indicator of liver fibrosis. Some studies have shown that APRI can be used as a predictor of severe dengue, but the data is limited. As dengue epidemics are common in our country with limited healthcare resources, we believe APRI can help emergency physicians/primary physicians in predicting the severity of dengue and plan for the appropriate use of limited healthcare resources. OBJECTIVE: 1) To determine the utility of APRI as a predictor of severe dengue. 2) To determine the association of APRI with length of hospital stay and platelet requirement. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A retrospective cross-sectional study was done on patients presented to the Emergency Medicine department at Travancore Medicity Medical College with a positive Dengue NS1 antigen or IgM antibody. RESULTS: We found from the univariate analysis results that ALT > 74.5 IU/L has a sensitivity of 59.6 and a specificity of 76.3 (AUC: 0.696; 95% CI: 0.606-0.786), AST > 160.5 IU/L has a sensitivity of 42.3 and a specificity of 93.7 (AUC: 0.747; 95% CI: 0.665-0.829), and APRI > 3.2 has a sensitivity of 69.2 and a specificity of 84.2 (AUC: 0.806; 95% CI: 0.72-0.884) to predict severe dengue. Patients with an APRI of >3.2 required a mean hospital stay of 5.47 days (P = 0.005); 27 (81.8%) requiring platelet transfusion had an APRI of > 3.2 (P = 0.00). CONCLUSION: APRI is a straightforward index that can be easily derived from AST and platelet values. APRI values of >3.2 can predict severe dengue with a sensitivity of 69.2 and a specificity of 84.2. APRI values of >3.2 are also associated with the length of hospital stay and requirement of platelet transfusion.