Differentiating the pathologies of cerebral malaria by postmortem parasite counts.
case_series · Level IV
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Abstract
To study the pathogenesis of fatal cerebral malaria, we conducted autopsies in 31 children with this clinical diagnosis. We found that 23% of the children had actually died from other causes. The remaining patients had parasites sequestered in cerebral capillaries, and 75% of those had additional intra- and perivascular pathology. Retinopathy was the only clinical sign distinguishing malarial from nonmalarial coma. These data have implications for treating malaria patients, designing clinical trials and assessing malaria-specific disease associations.
Medical subject headings
- Malaria, Cerebral
- Plasmodium falciparum