EFFECT OF CARICA PAPAYA LEAF EXTRACT ON PLATELET AGGREGATION, MEMBRANE FLUIDITY AND P-SELECTIN EXPRESSION IN DENGUE INFECTION: A RANDOMISED CONTROLLED TRIAL

40 patients with dengue infection(GroupI)  and 20 controls(Group II) will bestudied and blood samples will be collected to estimate Platelet aggregation andits membrane fluidity and P-Selectin levels. Group I will be further dividedinto two groups as Group Ia and Group Ib. Group Ia will get supportivetreatment and Carica papaya leaf extract . Group Ib will get Supportivetreatment only.  In case of Group I (Dengue) and Group II(Healthy subjects) five milliliter of blood sample will be collected. First sample will becollected for both Group I (Dengue) and Group II (Healthy subjects), within24-48 hrs of admission. 2nd and 3rd sample will becollected for Group I (Dengue) subjects only. 2nd sample will becollected at 3rd day of admission and third sample at 7rdday or at the time of discharge whichever is earlier. Blood samples will betested for P-Selectin,Platelet aggregation and Platelet membrane fluidity.Plateletaggregation will be expressed in percentage (%). Platelet membrane fluidity   will be expressed in florescence units. Mean with standard deviation will be calculated forexpression of CD markers on platelets and ANOVA with Bonferroni test will beused for comparing means between the groups. A p value of <0.05 will beconsidered as statistically significant difference between the groups.Appropriate parametric ( Paired  ’t’test) and non parametric (mann-whitney ’U’ test) will be used to compare thecontinuous variables between the groups.Thestudy protocol will conform to standard ethical guidelines.