WORLD JOURNAL OF ADVANCE
HEALTHCARE RESEARCH

Mohammed Saeed E. Eltayeb and Azhari A. Mohammed Nour*

ABSTRACT

Malaria is a serious parasitic infection, which infects human red blood cells. It is transmitted from one person to another by the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium sp. Early diagnosis and treatment are important to prevent the complications of severe infection, like renal disease and electrolyte disturbance. This is a case-control study aimed to estimate serum sodium and potassium levels in severe malaria patients. Sixty venous blood samples were collected, 30 of them were collected from patients with severe malaria and the other 30 samples were collected from healthy individuals attending Wad Medani Teaching Pediatric Hospital from May to August 2017. Serum sodium and potassium were estimated by using Cobas c 311. The data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed by the statistical package for social science (SPSS). This study concludes that there is a significant decrease in serum sodium and potassium levels in severe malaria patients compared to the control group [Na ± SD (130.93 ± 6.52) in cases, (137.47 ± 2.70) in the controls with significant P-value (0.000) and K ± SD (3.80 ± 0.5) in cases, (4.07 ± 0.6) in controls with significant P- to value (0.041)]. The present study recommended that serum electrolytes should be estimated and managed in malaria patients of all age groups to prevent complications, which may result from electrolyte depletion.

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