Diagnostic Value of Low Platelets in Malaria.

Conclusion: Thrombocytopenia is widely present in P. vivax malaria of adults. However, the severity of thrombocytopenia does not correlate with the likely progression to complication. The chance of progressing to complicated malaria is equal among all adults of P.vivax malaria irrespective of the platelet levels. Hence, in a resource limited rural Indian set-up where the expertise to diagnose and detect malaria microscopically or reliable antigen detection method is not available, thrombocytopenia in an acute febrile illness especially on Day 5 to Day 6 of fever onset could be considered as P. vivax malarial infection with good amount of diagnostic accuracy (sensitivity of 97.6%) and empirical anti-malarial therapy could be started as per the existing treatment guidelines. PMID: 31559771 [PubMed - in process]
Source: Journal of the Association of Physicians of India - Category: General Medicine Tags: J Assoc Physicians India Source Type: research