The usefulness of C-reactive protein in predicting malaria parasitemia in a sub-Saharan African region

Malaria remains a leading cause of childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Identifying patients who are at risk for severe manifestations at presentation still remains challenging. This study examines whether a semi-quantitative test on C-Reactive Protein (CRP) could be useful for rapidly predict...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2018-08, Vol.13 (8), p.e0201693-e0201693
Main Authors: Sarfo, Bismark Osei, Hahn, Andreas, Schwarz, Norbert Georg, Jaeger, Anna, Sarpong, Nimako, Marks, Florian, Adu-Sarkodie, Yaw, Tamminga, Thalea, May, Juergen
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Africa South of the Sahara - epidemiology
Analysis
Bacterial infections
Biology and Life Sciences
Biomarkers
Blood
C-reactive protein
C-Reactive Protein - metabolism
Child
Child, Preschool
Children
Endemic Diseases
Female
Fever
Fever - complications
Health aspects
Hematology
Humans
Immunoassay
Infant
Infections
Infectious diseases
Laboratories
Malaria
Malaria - complications
Malaria - diagnosis
Malaria - epidemiology
Malaria - metabolism
Male
Medicine
Medicine and Health Sciences
Mortality
Parasitemia
Parasitemia - complications
Parasitemia - diagnosis
Parasitemia - epidemiology
Parasitemia - metabolism
Parasites
Patients
Pediatric research
Predictive Value of Tests
Prognosis
Proteins
Sepsis
Vector-borne diseases
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Malaria remains a leading cause of childhood mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Identifying patients who are at risk for severe manifestations at presentation still remains challenging. This study examines whether a semi-quantitative test on C-Reactive Protein (CRP) could be useful for rapidly predicting the presence or absence of malarial parasitemia in febrile children. Data were collected from children with fever or a history of fever at the Agogo Presbyterian Hospital in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. Haematological measurements, microscopic detection of plasmodium species and semi-quantitative CRP measurements with a membrane-based immunoassay for whole blood were performed. CRP was classified as positive when the measured level was ≥ 10 mg/l. During 548 visits, thick blood film results could be obtained from 541 patients, 270 (49.3%) yielded parasitemia with Plasmodium spp. Whereas malaria parasites were detected in only a few patients (7.1%) with normal CRP levels (< 10mg/l), more than a half of patients with an increased CRP concentration (≥ 10 mg/l) were parasite positive (OR 14.5 [CI 4.4-47.6], p
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0201693