Blood Morphology of Patients Suffering from Malaria

Abstract

Objective: To find out changes in peripheral blood of patients suffering from malaria. Study Design: Descriptive case series. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at Shah Noor Medical Laboratory, Bannu Khyber st st Pakhtoon khawa from 1 May 2014 to 31 August 2014. Materials and Methods: In this study 160 cases of malaria patients were selected by non probability random sampling technique with informed consent of the patients. These patients were subjected to complete blood counts performed by Hematology analyzer Sysmex 21 and manual method using Neubaur's chamber and thick and thin films stained with Giemsa stain to confirm malarial parasite. The data was recorded in preformed designed proforma and was analysed by using a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16 for percentages, means and standered deviation. Results: Out of 160 patients 93(58%) were males and 67(41.87%) females. Most 59 (36.8%) were in the age range of 1-10 years. Plasmodium vivax found in 135(84.3%) and Plasmodium falciparum in 25(15.6%) cases. Minimum total leukocyte count (TLC) was 1300/cmm and maximum was 19500/cmm, Low Hemoglobin level was 4.50 g/dl and high value was 15.20 g/dl. Platelets minimum count was 35000/cmm and maximum was 590000/cmm. Anemia was present in 103(64.37%), thrombocytopenia was present in 65 (40.62%), leukopenia was present in 34 (21.25%), bicytopenia was present in 24 (15%) and Pancytopenia was found in 5 (3.12%) of cases, where as high TLC was encountered in 6 (3.75%) cases. Conclusion: This study shows that person suffering from malaria have significant changes in blood morphology especially cytopenias causing morbidity and mrtality needs special attention regarding accurate diagnosis and prompt treatment to avoid the complications.

Keywords

• malaria, plasmodium vivax, blood smear, thrombocytopenia, pancytopenia.