INTRALEUCOCYTE MALARIA PIGMENT IN ASYMPTOMATIC AND UNCOMPLICATED MALARIA

While malaria pigment or haemozoin is known to be an end product of ha emoglobin digestion by the malaria parasite, its clinical significance is just beginning to be elucidated. We have studied the distribution of intraleucocyte malaria pigment in 92 children, consisting of 32 chi ldren with asymptomatic malaria, 32 children with mild or uncomplicate d malaria and 28 children with no malaria. Over 90% of children in eac h of the three groups had pigment-containing monocytes and the numbers of pigment-containing monocytes were not significantly different betw een the three groups. While over 90% of children in both the asymptoma tic malaria and uncomplicated malaria groups had pigment-containing ne utrophils, 71.4 % of the no malaria group had such neutrophils, The nu mbers of pigment containing neutrophils was highest in the uncomplicat ed malaria group, followed by the asymptomatic malaria group with the no malaria group having the least numbers, The pigmented neutrophil: m onocyte ratio followed the same pattern. It was concluded that the num ber of pigment-containing neutrophils and the pigmented neutrophil:mon ocyte ratio may be a marker of the severity of malaria infection when one considers the conditions: no malaria, asymptomatic malaria and mil d malaria. Further work to verify this hypothesis across the full spec trum of the manifestations of malaria infection is needed.