White blood cells counts and parasite density in malaria in children aged 6 to 60 months in urban areas of Togo

Rational use of the artemisinin-based combination therapies in Togo requires laboratory parasitemia values to confirm suspected malaria. This study was conducted to determine the impact of the measured white blood cell (WBC) count on the determination of malaria parasite density among children younger than 5 years old infected with uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum in Togo. This cross-sectional study of 267 children from four pediatric centers diagnosed malaria with both thick and thin blood smears and counted WBCs with a hematology analyzer. The parasite densities, calculated with the number of WBCs and estimated with an assumed count of 8,000/μL, were compared with the Wilcoxon matched pairs signed-rank test. The children's median age was 35 months (interquartile range [24-48]), with a sex ratio of 1.32. The median WBC value was 8,300 cells/μL (range: 1,300-24,900 cells/μL). The median parasitemia value calculated with the absolute WBC count was 35,714 (range: 139-48,860 parasites/μL) was not statistically different from that estimated with the assumed value of 8,000 cells/μL - 33 125 parasites/μL (p = 0.564). This study shows that malaria parasite density obtained by assuming 8000 cells/μL does not result in overestimations for children aged 6-59 months.

Medienart:

E-Artikel

Erscheinungsjahr:

2013

Erschienen:

2013

Enthalten in:

Zur Gesamtaufnahme - volume:23

Enthalten in:

Medecine et sante tropicales - 23(2013), 4 vom: 12. Okt., Seite 412-6

Sprache:

Französisch

Weiterer Titel:

Numération leucocytaire et densité parasitaire dans le paludisme simple chez les enfants âgés de 6 mois à 5 ans en milieu urbain au Togo

Beteiligte Personen:

Dorkenoo, A M [VerfasserIn]
Layibo, Y [VerfasserIn]
Agbo, Y M [VerfasserIn]
Morgah, K [VerfasserIn]
Agbèrè, D [VerfasserIn]

Links:

Volltext

Themen:

English Abstract
Journal Article
Malaria
Parasite density
Pediatric
Togo
White blood cells count

Anmerkungen:

Date Completed 03.11.2014

Date Revised 24.05.2016

published: Print

Citation Status MEDLINE

doi:

10.1684/mst.2013.0246

funding:

Förderinstitution / Projekttitel:

PPN (Katalog-ID):

NLM23500345X