Haematological Pattern of Children with Malaria Attending Paediatric OPD at Tertiary Care Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To determine the haematological
pattern among children attending Paediatric
OPD with diagnosis of malaria at tertiary care
Hospital
Methods: In this observational study children
with diagnosis of malaria, age of <12 years and
either of gender were enrolled. Each patient
underwent clinical examination and medical history
regarding duration of fever including
sign/symptoms and previous antimalarial treatment
history. Three ml blood was collected from all the
patients for the complete blood count (CBC) The
haematological abnormalities were recorded. Entire
data was gathered and filled in the profrorma and its
analysis was done by SPSS version 16.0.
Results: Total 106 children were selected .Mean age
was 5.31+2.47 years. Malarial infection was higher
among male children 67(63.20%). Vivax parasite was
most common among (53.80%),falciparum in 45.30%,
while both parasites were found only in one case.
Mean platelet count was 96.35+74.34 in children
infected by falciparum malaria and 89.05+70.0 in
vivax infected children (p-value=0.815). Mean
haemoglobin level was 9.43+0.91 in falciparum
malaria and 9.38+0.90 in vivax infection(p-value=
0.477). Mean WBC level was 5.81+1.35 in falciparum
infected children and 6.06+1.41 in vivax infected
children( p-value=0.614). There was no significant
difference in haemoglobin and WBC according to
parasites p-values were insignificant.
Conclusion: Plasmodium vivax was the
commonest parasite; male children remained on
high risk of malarial transmission. Haematological
changes markedly appeared but statistically
insignificant according to falciparum and vivax.