Endotoxaemia in complicated falciparum malaria.

Abstract

In a prospective hospital-based study, endotoxin was detected by amoebocyte limulus lysate test in the blood of 18 of 20 patients with complicated Plasmodium falciparum (16 with cerebral malaria, 2 with blackwater fever, one with acute malarial hepatitis and one with hepatorenal failure) and in all 5 patients with uncomplicated malaria tested, but in none of 5 healthy volunteers. There were 4 deaths among the 18 patients with complicated malaria and endotoxaemia. No correlation between endotoxaemia and presence of complications, clinical severity, or degree of parasitaemia was found. A concomitant bacterial infection could account for endotoxaemia in 11 of the 16 patients with cerebral malaria and endotoxaemia; in the other 5 patients with cerebral malaria, 4 with other complications, and 5 with uncomplicated malaria, endotoxin was detected in the blood without any evidence of bacterial infection.

• Authors: Aung-Kyaw-Zaw, Khin-Maung-U, Myo-Thwe
• Journal: Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (Trans R Soc Trop Med Hyg) Vol. 82 Issue 4 Pg. 513-4 ( 1988) ISSN: 0035-9203 [Print] England
• PMID: 3076705 (Publication Type: Journal Article)

Chemical References

• Endotoxins

Topics

• Adolescent
• Adult
• Animals
• Bacterial Infections (complications)
• Blackwater Fever (blood)
• Brain Diseases (complications)
• Child
• Child, Preschool
• Endotoxins (blood)
• Female
• Hepatitis (complications)
• Humans
• Infant
• Malaria (blood, complications, mortality)
• Male
• Middle Aged
• Plasmodium falciparum