title: Differentiating the pathologies of cerebral malaria by postmortem parasite counts.
abstract: To study the pathogenesis of fatal cerebral malaria, we conducted autopsies in 31 children with this clinical diagnosis. We found that 23% of the children had actually died from other causes. The remaining patients had parasites sequestered in cerebral capillaries, and 75% of those had additional intra- and perivascular pathology. Retinopathy was the only clinical sign distinguishing malarial from nonmalarial coma. These data have implications for treating malaria patients, designing clinical trials and assessing malaria-specific disease associations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, College of Osteopathic Medicine, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824, USA. taylort@msu.edu
authors.forename: Terrie E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: Wenjiang J
authors.initials: WJ
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.forename: Richard A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Carr
authors.forename: Richard O
authors.initials: RO
authors.lastname: Whitten
authors.forename: Jeffrey S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: Nedson G
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Fosiko
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lewallen
authors.forename: N George
authors.initials: NG
authors.lastname: Liomba
authors.forename: Malcolm E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Molyneux
authors.forename: Jeffrey G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Mueller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001344:Autopsy; D001921:Brain / Q000469:parasitology / Q000473:pathology; D002196:Capillaries / Q000469:parasitology; D002423:Cause of Death; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D002648:Child; D003128:Coma; D006801:Humans; D016779:Malaria, Cerebral / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000469:parasitology* / Q000473:pathology*; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000302:isolation & purification*