MALARIA AND PLATELETS: A WELL-KNOWN ASSOCIATION WITH NEW PERSPECTIVE

INTRODUCTION: Malaria continues to be a great health problem in tropical and subtropical countries, causing significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Most common hematological change associated with malaria is thrombocytopenia. Lot of research has been done in past to study changes in platelet count in malaria. Present study aims to evaluate changes in other platelet parameters like mean platelet volume, platelet distribution width and plateletcrit (PCT) in malaria caused by common species and its correlation with grade of malaria. METHODOLOGY: This observational study was conducted in central hospital laboratory of a tertiary health care centre in Mangalore, Karnataka. The laboratory confirmed cases of malaria from July 2013 to December 2013 were included in the study. Platelet indices in malaria caused by P. vivax as well as P. falciparum and its correlation with parasite density were studied. RESULT: Platelet count and PCT showed inverse relationship with increasing grades of malaria (both P. falciparum and P. vivax) which was found statically significant. Platelet distribution width showed increasing trends with increasing grades of malaria in both species. However, mean platelet volume showed no correlation with grades of malaria. CONCLUSION: Along with platelet count, other platelet indices like platelet distribution width and PCT can be utilized to assess the severity of malarial infection.