A high PCT level correlates with disease severity in Plasmodium falciparum malaria in children.
New Microbiol
; 40(1): 72-74, 2017 Jan.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-28217817
ABSTRACT
Most clinicians in developed countries have limited experience in making clinical assessments of malaria disease severity and/or monitoring high-level parasitemia in febrile patients with imported malaria. Hyperparasitemia is a risk factor for severe P. falciparum malaria, and procalcitonin (PCT) has recently been related to the severity of malaria. In developed countries, where not all hospital have skilled personnel to count parasitemia, a rapid test might be useful for the prompt diagnosis of malaria but unfortunately these tests are not able to count the number of parasites. In this context, PCT might have a prognostic value for the assessment of severe malaria, especially in children with cerebral malaria. We describe two children with severe cerebral malaria, who were directly admitted to the ICU with a high level of PCT and extremely high (>25%) parasitemia. Our conclusion is that PCT may also be a measure of severity of P. falciparum malaria in children.
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Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Plasmodium falciparum
/
Calcitonina
/
Malária Falciparum
Tipo de estudo:
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limite:
Child, preschool
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Infant
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
New Microbiol
Assunto da revista:
MICROBIOLOGIA
Ano de publicação:
2017
Tipo de documento:
Article
País de afiliação:
Itália