Abstract
Vitamin A (retinol)-deficiency and falciparum malaria are two major public health problems in developing countries. Falciparum malaria is associated with significant destruction of erythrocytes and can lead to severe anaemia. The present study was designed to estimate the serum retinol concentration in 150 acute falciparum-malaria patients (aged two to five years) by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Serum retinol concentrations of 20 healthy (age and sex matched, population based) volunteers were included as controls. The mean serum retinol concentration of healthy controls was 34.31 +/- 1.274 microg/dl and that of diseased cohort was 12.562 +/- 0.276 microg/dl. The mean parasitemia was 1239.2 +/- 33.609 per microL. The diseased cohort demonstrated significant reduction in concentrations of retinol in comparison to healthy controls (p < 0.001) and there was an inverse relationship (coefficient of correlation r = -0.899) between parasitemia and serum retinol concentration.
Highlights
Malaria, which is a disease of antiquity, has proved to be a formidable deterrent to the cultural and socioeconomic progress of mankind throughout the globe especially in the tropical, subtropical and monsoon prone regions
The study was conducted in confirmed patients of P. falciparum infection who attended out-patient clinics or those admitted to the wards of J N Medical College and Hospital, AMU, Aligarh, India, during May 2006 to September 2007
There was a gradual fall in serum vitamin A level as the parasitemia increased (Table 1 and Figure 1)
Summary
Malaria, which is a disease of antiquity, has proved to be a formidable deterrent to the cultural and socioeconomic progress of mankind throughout the globe especially in the tropical, subtropical and monsoon prone regions. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates 300-500 million malaria cases annually, with 90% of this burden in Africa [3]. Methodology: The present study was designed to estimate the serum retinol concentration in 150 acute falciparum-malaria patients (aged two to five years) by High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC). Serum retinol concentrations of 20 healthy (age and sex matched, population based) volunteers were included as controls. Results: The mean serum retinol concentration of healthy controls was 34.31 ± 1.274 μg/dl and that of diseased cohort was 12.562 ± 0.276 μg/dl. Conclusions: The diseased cohort demonstrated significant reduction in concentrations of retinol in comparison to healthy controls (p < 0.001) and there was an inverse relationship (coefficient of correlation r = -0.899) between parasitemia and serum retinol concentration
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