Faisal Idrees, Muhammad Sajid, Summaira Naveed, Sana Sarwar, Muhammad Tariq Bhatti.
Frequency of Plasmodium Falciparum and Vivax Species Causing Malaria & Their Clinicopathological Features in Children Presenting to a Tertiary Care Hospital in Lahore.
Esculapio J Services Inst Med Sci Jan ;13(4):184-7.

Objective: The objectives of this study were to determine the frequency of Plasmodium falciparum and vivax species causing malaria in children presenting to Jinnah Hospital Lahore and compare the clinico-pathological features of malarial cases caused by Falciparum and Vivax Materials and Methods: This Cross sectional study was done in the department of Pediatrics Jinnah Hospital Lahore from November 2012 to April 2014 .200 children fulfilling the inclusion criteria were included in this study after approval from ethical committee and an informed consent their sample was sent for malaria parasite. Subjects with infection by Falciparum and Vivax was further examined and investigated for presence of hepatomegaly, splenomegaly, thrombocytopenia and leucopenia which was noted Results: The mean age of patients was 5.99 +- 3.27 years, and there were 88 (44%) male and 112 (66%) female patients in the study.It was found that majority of patients (136; 68%) were having Vivax species while 64 (32%) were having Falciparum species of malaria.The clinical findings showed among 64 patients with falciparum species, 24 (37.5%) had splenomegaly patients with vivax species, 88 (64.7%) had splenomegaly. There was a significant association between splenomegaly and species of malaria (p-value= 0.000). Out of 64 patients with falciparum species, 16 (25%) and among 136 patients with vivax species, 72 (52.9%) had hepatomegaly. There was a significant association between hepatomegaly and species of malaria (p-value= 0.000). Out of 64 patients with falciparum species, 8 (12.5%) had leukopenia and out of 136 patients with vivax species, 32 (23.5%) had leukopenia while 104 (76.5%) did not have leukopenia. There was no significant association between leukopenia and species of malaria as indicated by p-value = 0.069. Out of 64 patients with falciparum species, 56 (87.5%) had thrombocytopenia while in patients with vivax species, 112 (82.4%) had thrombocytopenia. There was no significant association between thrombocytopenia and species of malaria as indicated by p-value = 0.352.When we stratified our data and we found that for falciparum species the clinico-pathological findings were same in relation to gender and age groups, p-value > 0.05, while for vivax species the falciparum species were statistically different in both gender and age groups, p-value < 0.005. Conclusion: According to this study Vivax species was most prevalent causing malaria in children. Splenomegaly, hepatomegaly were statistically higher inVivax species as compare to Falciparum species but Leukopenia and Leukopenia were statistically same in both groups.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com