Utility of a multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction for combined detection and serotyping of dengue virus in paediatric patients hospitalised with severe dengue: A report from Chennai.

Objective: Molecular detection and serotyping are rapid, sensitive and accurate techniques for early diagnosis of paediatric dengue. The present study evaluates multiplex real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for diagnosis of dengue virus in children hospitalised with severe dengue (SD) and attempts to establish an association of clinical severity with specific serotypes.

Methods: Four hundred and eighty-five samples were received from hospitalised paediatric patients with suspected dengue from March 2019 to February 2020.

Stevens Johnson syndrome in association with Mycoplasma pneumonia.

Infections particularly Mycoplasma pneumoniae and HSV have been reported to be the commonest precipitating cause for Stevens Johnson syndrome (SJS) in children in developed countries and drugs are the commonest triggers reported in the Indian context. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IvIg) is emerging as a therapeutic option instead of glucocorticoids. The authors report a case of Stevens Johnson syndrome in association with Mycoplasma pneumoniae in a 5-y- old girl who recovered with IvIg therapy.

Hypertension due to angiodysplasia.

Renovascular hypertension is non essential hypertension, wherein anatomically evident arterial occlusive disease and increased blood pressures are related as cause and effect. The hypertension is due to renal ischemia. Angiodysplasia is an uncommon angiopathy associated with heterogeneous histological changes that may affect the carotid circulation and the visceral and peripheral arteries.