Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2010;32(12):579-583
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032010001200003
PURPOSE: to analyze the clinical course of three pregnant patients with severe malaria admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Porto Velho (RO), Brazil. METHODS: a descriptive study was conducted on three pregnant women infected with Plasmodium falciparum malaria, admitted to the intensive care unit of a hospital in Porto Velho from 2005 to 2006. Categorical variables used were the classification criteria of the World Health Organization which ranks severe malaria and the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Disease Classification System II (APACHE II) and Sepsis Related Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) predictors of morbidity and severity of intensive care unit diseases. RESULTS: the malaria acquired by the pregnant subjects characterized by infection with Plasmodium falciparum in its most serious form resulted in death for all three patients and their fetuses. CONCLUSIONS: although the sample of this study was small it reflects the important impact of severe malaria on pregnant women as well as the need for a more judicious and attentive prenatal care to identify the disease in its early stages and its first complications in pregnant women.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 1998;20(9):505-508
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72031998000900003
Purpose: to evaluate the chronic action of primaquine diphosphate on the pregnancy of female albino rats. Methods: sixty pregnant female rats, separated into six groups, were used. Group I received daily, by gavage, 1 ml of distilled water from day zero to the 20th day of pregnancy (control group). The female rats of the other groups also received daily, by gavage, during the same period of time the volume of 1 ml containing gradually concentrated primaquine diphosphate solution: 0.25 mg/kg, group II; 0.50 mg/kg, group III; 0.75 mg/kg, group IV; 1.5 mg/kg, group V and 3.0 mg/kg, group VI. The maternal weights were considered on day zero and on the 7th, 14th and 20th days of pregnancy, when the matrices were sacrificed. Results: the results showed that primaquine diphosphate, in the used doses, did not interfere with none of the following variables: maternal weight, newborn weight, medium individual weight of fetuses, weight of the group of placentas and medium individual weight of the placentas, implantation number, number of placentas and number of fetuses, when compared with the control group. Also there was no case of reabsorption, malformation, maternal mortality or intrauterine death, in any of the studied groups. Conclusion: in the conditions of the study there were no contraindications for the continuous use of primaquine diphosphate during the pregnancy of the female rat.
Summary
Revista Brasileira de Ginecologia e Obstetrícia. 2003;25(3):149-154
DOI 10.1590/S0100-72032003000300002
PURPOSE: to describe the frequency of clinical and laboratorial findings in pregnant women with malaria. METHODS: a descriptive study was performed including 445 pregnant women with a positive diagnosis of malaria of the Maternity and women's Clinic Bárbara Heliodora (Rio Branco, Acre State), from January 1996 to December 2001. These cases were reviewed and the pregant women with malaria were selected. RESULTS: a total of 33,420 patients were hospitalized in that period. Of these, 445 pregnant women (1.4%) were included. Among these, the frequency of the infection with Plasmodium vivax was 52.8% (n=235), with P. falciparum, 43.8% (n=195), and 3.4% (n=15) with both plasmodia. The most frequent clinical and laboratorial alterations (p<0.05) were observed in the patients with P. falciparum: pale mucosa, jaundice hemoglobin and hematocrit decrease, hypoglycemia and increase in serum aminotransferase, urea, creatinine and in bilirubin levels. Only one patient (1/445), a pregnant woman infected with P. falciparum died. Abortions, premature birth and low birth weight were detected in 1.3, 1.1 and 1.1% of the cases, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: these findings reflect the repercussion of malaria during pregnancy, and justify the existence of qualified medical care in obstetric units for diagnosis and treatment of these cases, especially in the Amazon region.