DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2020.v08i03.013

Pages: 830-839

In pregnancy and malaria, changes in haematological parameters could be due to normal physiological adaptation to pregnancy-induced stress on the haematological system or it could be a result of response to pathological changes due to malaria infection. The cross-sectional study aimed at using venous blood to assess the effect of malaria infection on the levels of haematological parameters in malaria-infected pregnant women attending ante-natal clinics of two tertiary hospitals in Port Harcourt and compared it with non-infected subjects to ascertain the extent of the influence of malaria coexisting with pregnancy. Ethical clearance was obtained from the Ethical Board of the two tertiary Hospitals. About 3mls of venous blood was drawn from 240 subjects comprising 80 malaria-infected pregnant women, 80 non-infected pregnant women and 80 apparently healthy non-pregnant women. Sysmex KX21 auto analyzer was used to analyze haematological parameters. Malaria parasite was diagnosed by Microscopy, pregnancy test done with Rapid Diagnostic Kit and data analyses with Statistical Analysis Software (SAS version 9.4). ANOVA was used for comparison of mean differences and level of significance set at P<0.05. Results in this study showed that RBC 3.94±0.04x106/µL, Hb 10.96±0.10 g/dl, MCHC 33.18±0.17 g/dl, lymphocyte 1.94±0.05 x103/µL and platelet 202.43±5.31 x103/µL, of the malaria-infected and RBC 3.80±0.04 x106/µL, Hb 10.68± 0.10 g/dl, MCHC 32.38±0.11 g/dl ,lymphocyte 1.99±0.07 x103/µL and %, platelet 214.83± 5.54 x103/µL of non-infected pregnant women were significantly reduced (p=0.0001) compared to the values of RBC 4.35±0.04 x106/µL, Hb 11.76±0.12 g/dl , MCHC 34.53± 0.13 g/dl , lymphocyte 2.39± 0.50 x103/µL and platelet 247± 6.19 x103/µL of the non-pregnant women. Packed cell volume 33.00±0.30% of infected pregnant women, 33.09± 0.24% of the non-infected women were also significantly reduced (p=010) compared to the non-pregnant values 34.17±0.30%. WBC and Neutrophil values