title: Preliminary observations on cerebral malaria in Nigerian children.
abstract: Seventy-five cases of childhood cerebral malaria (CM) seen within a 30-month period (January 1986 to June 1988) in the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH), Calabar, Nigeria were prospectively studied. Fifty-five percent of the victims were aged 1-5 years while 39% were between 6 and 10 years. Eight percent of the cases were postmortem surprises, their condition having been masked by other complications of malaria. At variance with the accepted definition of CM, 20% of the patients neither convulsed nor lost consciousness. In searching for any delineating premortem features of the disease, a combination of fever, multiple seizures, coma with severe anaemia did appear impressive and also a co-existence of tonic-clonic with pure tonic seizures was highly suspicious. The need to heighten the index of suspicion and encourage extensive research into this lethal aspect of malaria is stressed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Paediatrics, University of Calabar, Nigeria.
authors.forename: N W
authors.initials: NW
authors.lastname: Ikpatt
authors.forename: A A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Asindi
authors.forename: I A
authors.initials: IA
authors.lastname: Ekanem
authors.forename: M I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Khalil
mesh_terms: D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006784:Hospitals, Teaching; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008288:Malaria / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009549:Nigeria; D011446:Prospective Studies