Thrombocytopenia and its Comparison with Plasmodium Vivax and Plasmodium Falciparum in Malaria Patients

Background: Malaria in Pakistan is a serious public health problem and thrombocytopenia can serve as diagnostic predictive marker. Objective: The objective of present study was to find out the frequency of plasmodium vivax and falciparum in malaria patients and to compare the frequency of thrombocytopenia in patients effected by plasmodium falciparum versus vivax. Study type, settings & duration: This observational cross-sectional study was conducted at Department of Medicine, Jinnah Hospital, Lahore from February 2018 to July 2018. Methodology: Fever more than 100°F for >3 days and >2 hours daily along with evidence of presence of >1 parasite of plasmodium on microscopic examination of thick smear of blood was labeled as malaria. Subsequently, depending on the type of parasite on microscopic examination of thin smear of blood (>1per film) the patients were labeled plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax. Thrombocytopenia was defined as a platelet count <150,000 per mm3. After taking informed written consent, 236 patients of malaria were enrolled using non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Approximately three ml of blood was taken from each patient for microscopic examination of plasmodium type and platelet count measurement. SPSS version 17.0 was used for data entry and analysis. Data was stratified and chi square test applied keeping p-value