title: Childhood cerebral vivax malaria with pancytopenia.
abstract: We report on a 7-year-old girl with cerebral vivax malaria complicated by pancytopenia. The diagnosis of malaria was done by demonstration of trophozoites of Plasmodium vivax in the peripheral blood smear and confirmed by both a species-specific antigen detection technique and a sensitive polymerase chain reaction method. There was depression of all 3 blood cell lines. No overt manifestations attributed directly to pancytopenia were noted. The patient responded promptly to artesunate and pancytopenia was managed conservatively. To our knowledge, this is the first report of pancytopenia complicating childhood cerebral vivax malaria in the English literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatrics, The Institute of Child Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. rajoothapa@yahoo.co.in
authors.forename: Rajoo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thapa
authors.forename: Ramani
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ranjan
authors.forename: Vikram S
authors.initials: VS
authors.lastname: Patra
authors.forename: Subroto
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chakrabartty
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D037621:Artemisinins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000077332:Artesunate; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016779:Malaria, Cerebral / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D016780:Malaria, Vivax / Q000150:complications* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy; D010198:Pancytopenia / Q000209:etiology*; D010966:Plasmodium vivax / Q000302:isolation & purification; D053058:Trophozoites
chemical_list: D037621:Artemisinins; D000077332:Artesunate