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Laboratory markers of disease severity in Plasmodium knowlesi infection: a case control study

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MalariaJournal.pdf (521.7Kb)
Date
30/10/2012
Author
Willmann, Matthias
Ahmed, Atique
Siner, Angela
Wong, Ing Tien
Woon, Lu Chan
Singh, Balbir
Krishna, Sanjeev
Cox Singh, Janet
Keywords
Plasmodium knowlesi
Severity markers
Malaria pigment
Parasitaemia
Platelet count
Containing Leukocytes
Children
Association
Haemozoin
Thailand
R Medicine
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Abstract
Background: Plasmodium knowlesi malaria causes severe disease in up to 10% of cases in Malaysian Borneo and has a mortality rate of 1 - 2%. However, laboratory markers with the ability to identify patients at risk of developing complications have not yet been assessed as they have for other species of Plasmodium. Methods: A case control study was undertaken in two hospitals in Sarikei and Sibu, Malaysian Borneo. One hundred and ten patients with uncomplicated (n = 93) and severe (n = 17) P. knowlesi malaria were studied. Standardized pigment-containing neutrophil (PCN) count, parasite density and platelet counts were determined and analysed by logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis. Results: The PCN count was strongly associated with risk of disease severity. Patients with high parasite density (>= 35,000/mu l) or with thrombocytopaenia (<= 45,000/mu l) were also more likely to develop complications (odds ratio (OR) = 9.93 and OR = 5.27, respectively). The PCN count yielded the highest area under the ROC curve (AUC) estimate among all markers of severity (AUC = 0.8561, 95% confidence interval: 0.7328, 0.9794). However, the difference between all parameter AUC estimates was not statistically significant (Wald test, p = 0.73). Conclusion: Counting PCN is labour-intensive and not superior in predicting severity over parasitaemia and platelet counts. Parasite and platelet counts are simpler tests with an acceptable degree of precision. Any adult patient diagnosed with P. knowlesi malaria and having a parasite count >= 35,000/mu l or >= 1% or a platelet count <= 45,000/mu l can be regarded at risk of developing complications and should be managed according to current WHO guidelines for the treatment of severe malaria.
Citation
Willmann , M , Ahmed , A , Siner , A , Wong , I T , Woon , L C , Singh , B , Krishna , S & Cox Singh , J 2012 , ' Laboratory markers of disease severity in Plasmodium knowlesi infection: a case control study ' , Malaria Journal , vol. 11 , no. 363 , 363 . https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-363
Publication
Malaria Journal
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-363
ISSN
1475-2875
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2012 Willmann et al.; licensee 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.
Description
This study was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) UK; Grant number G0801971, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Trust Funds award)
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  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/3839

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