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John Teye Kuadzi, George Ankra-Badu, Mark Michael AddaeAddae. Plasmodium falciparum malaria in children at a tertiary teaching hospital: ABO blood group is a risk factor. The Pan African Medical Journal. 2011;10:2 Key words: ABO blood groups, malaria, severity, Plasmodium falciparum Permanent link: http://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/article/10/2/full Received: 15/05/2011 - Accepted: 02/09/2011 - Published: 06/09/2011 © John Teye Kuadzi et al. The Pan African Medical Journal - ISSN 1937-8688. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Plasmodium falciparum malaria in children at a tertiary teaching hospital: ABO blood group is a risk factor
John Teye Kuadzi1,&, George Ankra-Badu2, Mark Michael Addae1
1Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra, Ghana, 2Department of Haematology, University of Ghana Medical School, Korle-Bu, Accra, Ghana
&Auteur correspondant
John Teye Kuadzi, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, School of Allied Health Sciences, Korle-Bu, Accra, Ghana
ABO blood group antigens are formed by terminal glycosylation of glycoproteins and glycolipid chains present on cell surfaces. Glycosylation modulates all kinds of cell-to-cell interactions and this may be relevant in malaria pathophysiology, in which adhesion has been increasingly implicated in disease severity. This study was done to determine the association between ABO phenotypes and the severity of P. falciparum malaria in children.
One hundred and twenty one children were assessed at the Department of Child Health, KBTH from may to August 2008. ABO blood groups were determined by agglutination. The haemoglobin measurement was done with the haematology analyzer, Sysmex KX-21N. Malaria parasites were enumerated and the presence of malaria pigment noted. Identification of P. falciparum was done. Statistical tests used were odds ratio and chi square at a significance level of p < 0.05.
24.3% of the 121 children had severe falciparum malaria, and their mean haemoglobin was 4.49 g/dl (SD ±1.69). No significant association was found between the ABO phenotypes and malaria infection (p > 0.05). Blood group A was associated with more severe malaria as compared to the blood group O individuals (Odds ratio = 0.79, p > 0.05); blood group AB (Odds ratio = 0.14, p > 0.05) and also there was a significant difference in severity of malaria between blood group O and blood group B (Odds ratio = 1.28, p > 0.05).
Non-O blood group children are more prone to severe malaria caused by P. falciparum malaria than the group O, despite the lack of significant association between ABO blood groups and falciparum malaria.
