[Clinical profiles of patients with uncomplicated Plasmodum falciparum malaria in northwestern Colombia].
BACKGROUND
Few studies describe the clinical presentations of uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria in the province of Córdoba in an endemic area of northwestern Colombia.


OBJECTIVE
Profiles of patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria were described from two twons of Córdoba, Tierrata and Puerto Libertador, based on clinical, epidemiological and laboratory variables.


METHODS
Patients were examined according to standard WHO/PAHO protocols for assessment of antimalarial drug efficacy. Clinical data and parasitological information was collected as well. A multiple correspondence multivariate analysis was used to compare the profiles of 127 patients with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria.


RESULTS
Of the 127 patients,105 completed the 14-day follow-up and 7 had adequate clinical response. Between 80% and 98% of patients exhibited at least one of the most frequent symptoms of uncomplicated malaria, and 80.3% had asthenia as the most frequent symptom. The multivariate analysis grouped the variables into five distinguishable clusters of clinical profiles. These groups showed similarities with the classical clinical descriptions of uncomplicated malaria encountered in the literature. The low frequency of patients with adequate clinical response hampered the association analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
In Córdoba, therapeutic failure to chloroquine treatment is high in treating uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria. Multivariate analysis summarized variables related to epidemiological and clinical aspects and permitted a more objective approach to the interpretation of the findings.
Knudson
Angélica
A
Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, DC, Colombia. raknudsono@unal.edu.co
Nicholls
Rubén Santiago
RS
Guerra
Angela Patricia
AP
Sánchez
Ricardo
R
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000627:therapeutic use; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003105:Colombia / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D011379:Prognosis
D000962:Antimalarials