Objective:

Malaria is a fatalinfective disease, related to dreadful complications in severe cases. It is generallyestablished by hematological variations such as anemia and thrombocytopenia that are considered as prognostic indicators for malaria fever.Therefore, this study was intended to assess the incidence of hematological abnormalities associated with patients suffering from malaria.

Methodology:

This cross sectional study was conducted in the medical wards of Khyber Teaching Hospital, Peshawar using non-probability convenient sampling technique. The duration of the study was about 4 months from September 2021 to December 2021. A total of 100 patients who possessed positive malarial parasite on peripheral smears of both genders having age between 10 to 70 years were included in the study. Variables such as age was documented as Mean±SD. Frequencies and percentages were reported for gender, hematocrit and platelet count. 

Results: Thestudy findings revealed that 61(61%) patients were males and 39(39%) were females with their observed mean age being28.29±13.70 years. Most of thepatients aged between 10-20 years followed by 30(30%) cases who were aged 21-30 years. Furthermore, overall distribution of thrombocytopenia revealed that most of the patients 23(23%) had platelet count in the range of 71000-90000, 21(21.0%) patients had platelet count in the range of 51000-70000. Additionally, hematocrit distribution revealed that 41(41%) patients had hematocrit in the range of 36-45% followed by 34(34.0%), who had it in the range of 26-35%. Frequency of hematocrit with respect to gender revealed that 32(52.4%) males reported 36-45% hematocrit.

Conclusion: This study concluded that thrombocytopenia and anemia were commonly observed hematological abnormalities detected in patients with malaria infection caused by Plasmodium vivax. It is suggested that thrombocytopenia and anemia in a febrile patient indicate malaria fever therefore additional particular tests can be employed forconfirmation.

Keywords: Anemia, thrombocytopenia, malaria fever, Plasmodium vivax.