THROMBOCYTOPENIA; PREVALENCE AND SEVERITY AMONG PATIENTS OF MALARIA

Objective: To determine frequency of thrombocytopenia and its severity in malaria patients. Design & duration: It is a prospective study completed in six months duration. Setting: Study was conducted at medical department of FMH Medical and Dental College Lahore. Patients & methods: Patients presenting to the study hospital in medical out-door with signs and symptoms of malaria were diagnosed for having malaria by blood smear examination. Those diagnosed with malaria were included in the study and platelet count was tested of all subjects in study group to determine frequency of thrombocytopenia. All data was documented on a predesigned proforma and analyzed using SPSS software version 24. Means, standard deviation, p-value, frequency and percentage were calculated. Results: Out of 254 suspected cases, 200 were diagnosed with malaria and included in study group. There were 69% male and 31% female cases. Their age was 15-65 years with mean age of 34.7±8.6 years. There were 135(67.5%) cases with mild disease, 59(29.5%) with moderate and 06(03%) cases with severe disease. Conclusion: Thrombocytopenia is much common among patients of malaria and most of the patients suffer from mild disease and recover soon. Significant number of patients have sever thrombocytopenia out of total thrombocytopenic patients. Key words: Malaria, thrombocytopenia, Vector, platelets