Context: A mosquito-borne viral illness highly prevalent in the tropics and subtropics, dengue is considered a major global health threat by the World Health Organization.
Evidence acquisitions: Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Google Scholar, PubMed (NLM), LISTA (EBSCO) and Web of Science have been searched.
Results: An RNA virus from the genus Flavivirus, dengue virus is transmitted by Aedes aegypti,the yellow fever mosquito. Dengue is asymptomatic in as many as one half of infected individuals. Dengue fever is an acute febrile illness accompanied by constitutional symptoms. Dengue hemorrhagic fever and dengue shock syndrome are the severe forms of dengue infection.Dengue infection has been associated with a variety of renal disorders. Acute renal failure is a potential complication of severe dengue infection and is typically associated with hypotension, rhabdomyolysis, or hemolysis. Acute renal failure complicates severe dengue infection in 2-5% of the cases and carries a high mortality rate. Proteinuria has been detected in as high as 74% of patients with severe dengue infection. Hematuria has been reported in up to 12.5% of patients. Various types of glomerulonephritis have been reported during or shortly after dengue infection in humans and mouse models of dengue infection. Mesangial proliferation and immune complex deposition are the dominant histologic features of dengue-associated glomerulonephritis. On a rare occasion, dengue infection is associated with systemic autoimmune disorders involving the kidneys.
Conclusions: In the vast majority of cases, dengue infection and associated renal disorders are self-limited.
Keywords: Acute renal failure; Dengue infection; Glomerulonephritis; Hematuria; Proteinuria.