dengue fever

Cortical
laminar necrosis in dengue encephalitis—a case report. Axial sections of MRI of the brain depict curvilinear hyperintense cortical lesions in bilateral parietal and occipital areas on T1 W (a), T2 W (b) and T2 fluid attenuated inversion recovery (c) sequences. Mild gyral diffusion restriction is noted on diffusion weighted sequence (d) while blooming is seen on gradient echo sequence (e). Post-contrast T1 W sequence (f) depicts gyral enhancement
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Dengue is a mosquito-borne acute systemic viral infection caused by any of the four serotypes of the dengue virus.

Epidemiology

Dengue virus infections occur predominately in tropical and subtropical regions.

Clinical presentation

The infection can lead to a broad spectrum of symptoms ranging from mild, nonspecific, influenza-like prodromes called dengue fever to more severe forms known as:

  • dengue hemorrhagic fever
  • dengue shock syndrome 

Pathology

Etiology

The dengue viruses (DENV) are single-stranded RNA arboviruses that are divided into four different serotypes, nominated DENV-1, -2, -3, and -4. They belong to the family Flaviviridae and the genus Flavivirus.

Radiographic features

Although radiology does not play an active role in the diagnosis of dengue fever or in the assessment of mild cases, it can show typical findings related to plasma leakage and in abscence of serological tests, those features could play a diagnostic role. Findings include:

  • hepatomegaly
  • splenomegaly
  • pleural effusions (right-sided more common than bilateral or left-sided)
  • diffuse edema of the gallbladder wall
  • abdominal free fluid (ascites).
    Siehe auch:
    Assoziationen und Differentialdiagnosen zu Denguefieber: