BACKGROUND Malaria continues to be a major health problem in at least 91 countries/territories including India and continues to cause significant morbidity and mortality. The haematological abnormalities that have been marked consistently with malaria are anaemia, thrombocytopenia, and atypical lymphocytosis and infrequently disseminated intravascular coagulation. MATERIALS AND METHODS This cross sectional study was conducted in SCB Medical College, Cuttack of Odisha. The laboratory confirmed cases of malaria from January to December 2012 were included in the study. Haematological profile of complicated cases of malaria was evaluated compared to uncomplicated cases. RESULTS A total of 120 complicated malaria patients and 80 uncomplicated malaria patients were investigated. The difference in mean haemoglobin level and platelet count was significantly low in complicated cases compared to uncomplicated cases. Peripheral blood smear examination indicated that 68.60% of the complicated cases were associated with microcytic hypochromic anaemia, 23.26% with normocytic-normochromic anaemia and 8.14% had dimorphic anaemia. Atypical lymphocytes were observed in around 3.33% cases, while at least 2.5% cases of complicated cases were having eosinophilia and basophilia. Around 20.83% of complicated cases had hyperparasitaemia who had a worse prognosis. CONCLUSION The low level of haemoglobin and platelet can be used as a predictor of severity of the infection and thus prediction of the haematological changes enables the clinician to establish an effective and early therapeutic intervention in order to prevent the occurrence of major complications.
BACKGROUND The present work aimed at the clinical mode of presentation, degree of parasitaemia, complications and prognostic trends of pregnant women in cerebral malaria. Evaluation of mortality in different trimesters, varied complications and comparison with nonpregnant women was done. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty three pregnant women with cerebral malaria were studied. Twenty nonpregnant such cases of reproductive age group admitted to Department of Medicine, S.C.B. Medical College, Cuttack, Odisha, were taken as control. The cases were taken in random order. RESULTS Maximum numbers of cases (45.45%) were primigravidae in second trimester of pregnancy. They exhibited higher incidence of anaemia and parasitaemia (2-10%), resulting in abortion and premature labour. CONCLUSION All the cases of cerebral malaria were found to be anaemic, but the severity of anaemia was more pronounced in primi (21%) as compared to multigravidae (6.4%). High parasitaemia associated with leucocytosis (27.27%) resulted in poor prognosis. Hypoglycaemia (15.15%), high level of urea, creatinine and alteration in parameters of liver function test further complicated the scenario leading to multiorgan failure. Recovery in cases of primigravidae was prolonged as compared to multigravidae.
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