Hematological alteration among visceral leishmaniasis patients attending in Western Tigrai, Ethiopia, 2018/2019: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Hematological abnormalities are common in visceral leishmaniasis patients, which is one of the main public health problems worldwide. The most common hematological abnormalities are anemia, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the hematological alteration among visceral leishmaniasis patients attending Western Tigrai, Ethiopia, 2019. Method: Hospital based comparative cross sectional study was conducted from November 2018 to March 2019 in Western Tigrai, Ethiopia. A total of 100 Visceral Leishmaniasis patients and 100 control groups were included in this study. Blood was collected and analyzed by mindray BC-5800 hematology analyzer. Data was entered and analyzed using Statistical package for social science version 23. Student independent t-test was used for data analysis. P value <0.05 was considered as statistically significant at 95% confidence level. Result: From the total 100 visceral leishmaniasis patients the following abnormalities were reported: 96(96%) anemia, 95(95%) leucopenia, 92(92%) neutropenia, 73(73%) Lymphopenia, 45(45%) eosinopenia and 97(97%) had thrombocytopenia. Red blood cell, hemoglobin, hematocrit, red cell indices and platelet were significantly lower (p<0.05) in visceral leishmaniasis patients compared with the control groups. Similarly the total White blood cell, neutrophil, lymphocyte, eosinophil and basophil count were significantly lower (p<0.05) in visceral leishmaniasis patients compared with the control groups. Conclusion: The major changes in peripheral blood of patient with visceral leishmaniasis are reduced number of red blood cells, reduction in leukocytes and decreased platelet count. Visceral leishmaniasis patients presented with anemia, leucopenia and thrombocytopenia. So this finding indicates that visceral leishmaniasis causes alterations of hematological parameters. Key words: Amastigote, Anemia, Hematological Parameters, Promastigote, Visceral leishmaniasis, Ethiopia .

Epidemiological, clinical and hematological profiles of visceral leishmaniasis among patients visiting Tefera Hailu Memorial Hospital, Northeast Ethiopia: a 4 year retrospective study

“…Regarding the severity of anemia, of the total 114 (86.4%) anemic patients, 54 (47.4%), 48 (42.1%), and 12 (10.5%) developed severe, mild, and moderate anemia, respectively. This finding was comparable with that reported from a study done in Western Tigrai, Ethiopia 38 .…”

“…The major clinical symptom and sign presentations of VL patients were fever (96.2%), splenomegaly (94.7%), and general weakness (80.3%). Similar findings were observed in the study done in Bahir Dar 26 , Western Tigrai 38 , Ethiopia, Kenya 32 , and Northern Pakistan 39 . The development of fever and splenomegaly in leishmaniasis is possibly due to the release of many proinflammatory cytokines and the sequestration of red blood cells in the spleen 40 .…”