Clinical, haematological and chemotherapeutic profiles of malaria cases in Hospital Kuala Lumpur: a retrospective review

Abstract

A retrospective study was carried out on 40 parasitologically confirmed malaria cases admitted to Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Malaysia. Twenty-four cases of P. vivax, 14 P falciparum and one each for P. malariae and mixed infection were identified. Forty-five percent had gametocytes in the blood at admission. Fever associated with chills and rigors was the most common presenting complaint. Malaria was the provisional diagnosis at admission in only 56.1% of the cases. A high proportion of the patients were anaemic and 88.2% had thrombocytopenia and 30% were hypoglycaemic. The degree of anaemia and thrombocytopenia were significantly associated with pre-treatment parasite density (p=0.004 and p=0.029 respectively). All the patients responded well to the various combinations of antimalarial drugs used for treatment.