Abstract Introduction: Malaria causes death of about1.1 to 2.7 million people annually of which majority are children under five years.Hematological changes are some of the most common complications in malaria and they play a major role in malarial pathogenesis. These changes involve the major cell types such as RBC, leucocytes and thrombocytes.This study aimed to access the changes in haematological parameters in smear positive malaria cases, to see the changes in biochemical parameters in smear positive malaria cases and to compare these changes in P. vivaxand P. falciparum infection. Material and Methods: This observational study was conducted in in a tertiary care center during the period of May 2017 to May 2018. Total two hundred smear positive malaria cases were examined forvarious hematological parameters and biochemical parameters. Results: Results of the present study showed that 110 cases were P. Vivax positive while 90 patients were P. Falciperm positive among 200 smear positive cases. Majority of the patients (70%) have sown either mild (40%) or moderate degree (30%) of anemia. Among 9% of malaria patients Hb Concentration was <7 gm%. Most of the patients (68%), showed haematocrit level in the range of 20-35%.In anemic patients, commonly found RBC morphologywere normocytic, normochromic (64.55%) followed by microcytic hypochromic (29.11%) nearly equal in both P. falciparum and P. vivax malaria.Platelet counts were less than 1.5 lakhs/mm3 both types of malaria patients (71%). Further, severe thrombocytopenia (<50,000) was recorded in 19 malaria patients. Conclusion: Findings of the current study suggest that careful observation of haematological findings are warranted in the malaria patient as anaemia and thrombocytopenia of varying degree of severity have been found in malaria patients. Further, results of the present study showed that P. Falciparum and P. Vivax are associated with serious complications like severe anaemia and malarial hepatitis without any significant difference between both species. Hence, both P. Falciparum and P. Vivaxinfections on suspicion of complication should be further evaluated. However, more studies on larger populations are warranted to assess the haematological parameters in malaria.
Keyworlds: Malaria; Thrombocytopenia; Leucocytosis; Anaemia.