title: Endotoxaemia in complicated falciparum malaria.
abstract: In a prospective hospital-based study, endotoxin was detected by amoebocyte limulus lysate test in the blood of 18 of 20 patients with complicated Plasmodium falciparum (16 with cerebral malaria, 2 with blackwater fever, one with acute malarial hepatitis and one with hepatorenal failure) and in all 5 patients with uncomplicated malaria tested, but in none of 5 healthy volunteers. There were 4 deaths among the 18 patients with complicated malaria and endotoxaemia. No correlation between endotoxaemia and presence of complications, clinical severity, or degree of parasitaemia was found. A concomitant bacterial infection could account for endotoxaemia in 11 of the 16 patients with cerebral malaria and endotoxaemia; in the other 5 patients with cerebral malaria, 4 with other complications, and 5 with uncomplicated malaria, endotoxin was detected in the blood without any evidence of bacterial infection.
authors.affiliation: Defence Services General Hospital, Mingaladon, Rangoon, Burma.
authors.lastname: Aung-Kyaw-Zaw
authors.lastname: Khin-Maung-U
authors.lastname: Myo-Thwe
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000150:complications; D001742:Blackwater Fever / Q000097:blood; D001927:Brain Diseases / Q000150:complications; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004731:Endotoxins / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006505:Hepatitis / Q000150:complications; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008288:Malaria / Q000097:blood* / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum
chemical_list: D004731:Endotoxins