White blood cell counts and malaria.
Journal Article (Journal Article;Multicenter Study)
White blood cells (WBCs) were counted in 4697 individuals who presented to outpatient malaria clinics in Maesod, Tak Province, Thailand, and Iquitos, Peru, between 28 May and 28 August 1998 and between 17 May and 9 July 1999. At each site and in each year, WBC counts in the Plasmodium falciparum-infected patients were lower than those in the Plasmodium vivax-infected patients, which, in turn, were lower than those in the uninfected patients. In Thailand, one-sixth of the P. falciparum-infected patients had WBC counts of <4000 cells/microL. Leukopenia may confound population studies that estimate parasite densities on the basis of an assumed WBC count of 8000 cells/microL. For instance, in the present study, use of this conventional approach would have overestimated average asexual parasite densities in the P. falciparum-infected patients in Thailand by nearly one-third.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- McKenzie, FE; Prudhomme, WA; Magill, AJ; Forney, JR; Permpanich, B; Lucas, C; Gasser, RA; Wongsrichanalai, C
Published Date
- July 15, 2005
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 192 / 2
Start / End Page
- 323 - 330
PubMed ID
- 15962228
Pubmed Central ID
- PMC2481386
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0022-1899
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1086/431152
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States