Background: Malaria, caused by Plasmodium species carries significant mortality and morbidity. WHO estimates the disease burden in India to be up to 75% of all cases from South East Asia. Immune play in malarial infestation resulting in reduction of platelet count is common knowledge now. We undertook this study to evaluate the significance of alterations in platelet count and indices in malaria in comparison to a healthy control group.

Methods: A case control study conducted in a tertiary care hospital based in Dakshina Kannada district. 62 newly diagnosed cases of malaria confirmed by Peripheral smear method over a period of one year, and 50 healthy subjects were included. Cases of malaria with ongoing treatment and the cases which did not undergo malarial diagnostic tests in our institute were excluded. Following informed consent, platelet count and indices obtained from the five part automated haematology analyser (Mindray BC5380) were compiled and tested for significance in SPSS using unpaired t-test.

Results: 31 of the 62 cases showed pure P. vivax infestation, five cases showed pure P. falciparum infestation. 26 cases were mixed malarial infestation, having both P. vivax, and P. falciparum. Platelet count showed a mean value of 82,645/mm3, and 2, 53,380/mm3 in the case and control groups respectively. Statistical analysis showed p-values less than 0.001 in platelet count and indices between cases and controls.

Conclusion: This study demonstrated that platelet count is reduced in malaria with statistically significant alterations of the platelet indices as compared to the control group, raising the possible utility as contributory diagnostic markers of malaria. Replication of these results by studies with a great number of sample size would help validate these findings.

Keywords: Malaria; Blood Platelet; Plateletcrit.