Impact of Plasmodium falciparum infection on haematological parameters in children living in Western Kenya

Malaria Journal

Research

Gordon Hongo¹  John Waitumbi¹  Lucas Otieno¹  Robert N Maina¹  Charla Gaddy¹  David Jones¹  Douglas Walsh¹  Bernhards R Ogutu² 

[1] US Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya (Walter Reed Project), Nairobi, Kenya;Centre for Clinical Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya;US Army Medical Research Unit-Kenya (Walter Reed Project), Nairobi, Kenya;Centre for Clinical Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya;USAMRU-K (Walter Reed Project), Centre for Clinical Research, Kenya Medical Research Institute, P.O.Box 54, 40100, Kisumu, Kenya;

关键词: Malaria;    Platelet Aggregation;    Disseminate Intravascular Coagulation;    Malaria Infection;    Haematological Parameter;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-9-S3-S4

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundMalaria is the commonest cause of childhood morbidity in Western Kenya with varied heamatological consequences. The t study sought to elucidate the haemotological changes in children infected with malaria and their impact on improved diagnosis and therapy of childhood malaria.MethodsHaematological parameters in 961 children, including 523 malaria-infected and 438 non-malaria infected, living in Kisumu West District, an area of malaria holoendemic transmission in Western Kenya were evaluated.ResultsThe following parameters were significantly lower in malaria-infected children; platelets, lymphocytes, eosinophils, red blood cell count and haemoglobin (Hb), while absolute monocyte and neutrophil counts, and mean platelet volume (MPV) were higher in comparison to non-malaria infected children. Children with platelet counts of <150,000/uL were 13.8 times (odds ratio) more likely to have malaria. Thrombocytopaenia was present in 49% of malaria-infected children and was associated with high parasitaemia levels, lower age, low Hb levels, increased MPV and platelet aggregate flag. Platelet aggregates were more frequent in malaria-infected children (25% vs. 4%, p<0.0001) and associated with thrombocytopaenia rather than malaria status.ConclusionChildren infected with Plasmodium falciparum malaria exhibited important changes in some haematological parameters with low platelet count and haemoglobin concentration being the two most important predictors of malaria infection in children in our study area. When used in combination with other clinical and microscopy, these parameters could improve malaria diagnosis in sub-patent cases.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Maina et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2010. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.