Objective:To assess the plasma electrolyte status of patients with diagnosis of malaria but without the symptoms of diarrhea,vomiting or altered sensorium and correlation of the plasma electrolyte changes and the degree of parasitae-mia.Methods:All the participants were adults,who met the clinical case definition of malaria but without the symptoms of diarrhea,vomiting or other medical illness.Blood slides were screened microscopically for malaria par-asite and the parasite positive patients were grouped into A (mild),B (moderate)and C (heavy)malaria parasite-amia,depending on the malaria parasite count per high power microscopic field.Plasma sodium,potassium and chloride were estimated using the ion selective electrode method,while bicarbonate ions were determined by simple titration method.Results:A total of 200 subjects were studied which comprised of 150 patients and 50 controls.The mean plasma sodium was significantly lower in patients with heavy parasitaemia[group C,(128.8 ±1.2)mmol /L] compared to those with mild and moderate parasitemia[(133.5 ±2.8)mmol /L and (133.5 ±3.5)mmol /L,P <0.0001].The mean plasma chloride was lowest in those patients with heavy parasitaemia (group C)than those pa-tients of group A and B (P <0.0001).Patients in group C also had significant hypokalaemia[(3.2 ±0.5)mmol /L]when compared to those in groups A and B[(3.6 ±0.3)mmol /L and (4.1 ±0.6)mmol /L respectively,P <0. 0001].Conclusion:A disorder of plasma electrolytes in malaria patients that had no symptoms of diarrhea and vom-iting was reported.And the severity of hyponatraemia and hypokalaemia correlate with the severity of the patients′malaria parasitaemia.This data should alert clinicians on the need to assess electrolytes status of patients with ma-laria even without the symptoms of fluid loss,especially when malaria parasitaemia is heavy.
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