Case Study for Hepatic Involvement of Children with Malaria

Background: Malaria has a significant impact on public health and economic development in affected regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a global problem affecting people every year leading to a substantial number of deaths especially among children under the age of 5.

Aim: A cross sectional study of Evaluation of hepatic involvement of children with malaria among the middle age children (6-10years) attending some hospitals and schools in South South region of Nigeria was conducted.

Methodology: Following ethical approval from the institutions as well as concrete consent from the children’s families, 418 randomly selected children aged 6 to 10 years participated in the study. Out of this number, 298 children had malaria and 120 children who had no malaria were taken to be the control. Blood was collected through the vein using syringe into ethylene diaminetetracetic acid and lithium bottles. Giemsa stain was used to stain the blood films. Aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine aminotransferase (ALT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT), albumin and total protein were analysed with the conventional biochemical methods.

Results: Analysis of the data obtained showed that Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) 18.12±0.47, alanine aminotransferase (ALT) 8.56±0.12, alkaline phosphatase (ALP) 69.55± 0.87 and gamma glutamyltransferase (GGT) 21.41±0.29 values increased (P<0.05) in malaria subjects significantly when compared with the control 5.58±18, 4.62±0.17, 16.58±0.57 and 16.64±0.29 respectively. The study equally revealed that the test group showed significant (P<0.5) decrease of albumin 30.40±0.37 values when compared with the control group54.87±0.90.

Conclusion: The changes in these liver parameters go on to suggest that plasmodiasis might have adverse effect on the hepatic functionality (integrity) as well as the function. Therefore, this should not be neglected as such neglect might result to mortality.