Artesunate versus quinine in the treatment of severe imported malaria: comparative analysis of adverse events focussing on delayed haemolysis

Malaria Journal

Research

Stefan Kluge¹  Dominic Wichmann¹  Stefan Schmiedel²  Thierry Rolling³  Gerd D Burchard³  Jakob P Cramer³ 

[1] Department of Intensive Care Medicine, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Internal Medicine, Section Tropical Medicine University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Internal Medicine, Section Tropical Medicine University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany;Department of Clinical Research, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany;

关键词: Severe malaria;    Imported malaria;    Artesunate;    Quinine;    Haemolysis;    Adverse events;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1475-2875-12-241

 received in 2013-03-27, accepted in 2013-06-23,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSevere malaria is a potentially life-threatening infectious disease. It has been conclusively shown that artesunate compared to quinine is superior in antiparasitic efficacy and in lowering mortality showing a better short-term safety profile. Regarding longer-term effects, reports of delayed haemolysis after parenteral artesunate for severe malaria in returning travellers have been published recently. So far, delayed haemolysis has not been described after the use of parenteral quinine.MethodsIn this retrospective study, all patients treated for severe malaria at the University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf were included between 2006 and 2012. The primary endpoint was the proportion of delayed haemolysis in patients treated with quinine versus those who received artesunate. As secondary endpoint, the proportion of any adverse event was assessed.ResultsA total of 36 patients with severe malaria were included in the analysis. Of these, 16 patients contributed sufficient data to assess the endpoint delayed haemolysis. Twelve were treated primarily with intravenous quinine – with four patients having received intrarectal artesunate as an adjunct treatment – and five patients were treated primarily with artesunate. Five cases of delayed haemolysis could be detected – two in patients treated with quinine and intrarectal artesunate and three in patients treated with artesunate. No case of delayed haemolysis was detected in patients treated with quinine alone.While adverse events observed in patients treated with artesunate were limited to delayed haemolysis (three patients, 60%) and temporary deterioration in renal function (three patients, 60%), patients treated with quinine showed a more diverse picture of side effects with 22 patients (71%) experiencing at least one adverse event. The most common adverse events after quinine were hearing disturbances (12 patients, 37%), hypoglycaemia (10 patients, 32%) and cardiotoxicity (three patients, 14%).ConclusionsThis study provides further evidence on delayed haemolysis after artesunate and underlines the importance of a standardized follow-up of patients treated with artesunate for severe malaria.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Rolling et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013. 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.