Abstract
Objective
To compare the incidence and severity of thrombocytopenia in various types of malaria
Methods
This study was conducted from June 2004 to May 2007 at the Infectious Diseases Unit,
Rashid Hospital Dubai. The diagnosis of malaria was confirmed by thick and thin film
staining and platelet count was performed by automated Beckman Coulter machine.
Thrombocytopenia was defined as mild (Plat 50-150x103cells/ul), moderate (Plat 20-
50x103cells/ul) and severe (Platelets <20x103cell/ul).
Results
A total of 110 malaria patients were included and 56 (50.9%) had P. falciparum malaria,
whereas, 52 (47.27%) and 2 (1.8%) patients suffered from P.vivax and P. malariae
respectively. The mean age was 31.9+9.59 years. The males out numbered the females,
102 (92.72%) vs 8 (7.27%). Overall, 87.27% of the patients were found to have low
platelet count. There was no significant difference in the incidence of thrombocytopenia
between P.falciparum (91%) and P.vivax (84.62%) cases (p>0.05). However, severe
thrombocytopenia was observed in P. falciparum (10.71%) than P.vivax (3.84%) patients.
Conclusion
In contrast to the previous studies, we did not observe significant difference in the
incidence of thrombocytopenia between P.falciparum and P.vivax malaria. Furthermore,
the incidence of thrombocytopenia was quite high, which, as to the best of our knowledge
has not reported before, particularly in P.vivax patients. (Rawal Med J 2009;34: ).

Key words: Thrombocytopenia, P. falciparum, P.vivax, malaria.