LABORATORY PROFILE OF INDOOR PATIENTS ADMITTED WITH ACUTE ENCEPHALITIC SYNDROME IN A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE OF NORTH-BENGAL

Abstract

Background: Acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) is dened as the acute-onset of fever and a change in mental status (including signs and symptoms such as confusion, disorientation, delirium or coma) and/or new-onset of seizures (excluding simple febrile seizures) in a person of any age at any time of the year. Most AES is considered to be due to a viral-encephalitis, virus like West Nile, Herpes simplex virus, Flaviviruse like JE and dengue are more prevalent in South East Asia. Methods: This observational Cross sectional Study was conducted in the indoor patients of Department of Medicine at Tertiary care Hospital in North Bengal from May 2013 to April 2014. All consecutive patients of AES admitted during this period were included in the study. The study region covers the various districts of North Bengal. Template was generated in MS excel sheet and analysis was done on SPSS 20.0 software. Results: Among 104 acute encephalitis syndrome patients, 68 (65.38%) were male and 36 (34.62%) were female. The majority of pts (54.81%) were >40yrs of age. The lowest wbc count was 3000/cumm and highest was 21,200/cumm with mean wbc count being 10462.56±3567.832/cumm. Asignicant number 56 (53.85%) of patients had serum potassium levels between 2.5-3.5meq/dl. The no. of JE Positive patients was 75 (72.12%) which may be due to the local endemicity of the disease Conclusions: Majority of cases were in the age-group of more than 40 years, with male predominance. The no. of JE Positive patients was 75 (72.12%) which may be due to the local endemicity of the disease.