Childhood cerebral vivax malaria with pancytopenia.
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.
Thapa
Rajoo
R
Department of Pediatrics, The Institute of Child Health, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. rajoothapa@yahoo.co.in
Ranjan
Ramani
R
Patra
Vikram S
VS
Chakrabartty
Subroto
S
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
D037621:Artemisinins; D000077332:Artesunate