Splenomegaly in malaria patients in a tertiary care institute: A study from central India

Introduction: The spleen is always affected in person suffered from malaria. The palpable spleen is one of the main clinical symptoms. History of fever, anemia and splenomegaly are predicting symptoms for clinical diagnosis of malaria infection in endemic area. Material and Methods: The study was conducted in the department of Medicine, Chirayu medical college and hospital Bhopal. All patients of age equal or greater than 15 years presenting with the fever and had positive peripheral smear for malaria parasite were included in my study. Results: 81% (n=21) patients of asexual stage had enlarged spleen where as 19% (n=5) patients of sexual stage had enlarge spleen. There is significant association of splenomegaly with asexual stage. All cases have splenomegaly in mixed species, 41.60% (n=20) splenomegaly seen in P. falciparum species and only 20% splenomegaly seen in P. vivax species. Conclusion: Though clinical examination is one of the good method to detect splenomegaly USG examination is superior as its sensitivity and specificity is higher than clinical examination. Hence it is recommended that splenomegaly be detected by USG examination in cases of malaria.