Abstract

Procalcitonin (PCT), the prohormone of calcitonin, is suitable for detecting complications of infection characterized by systemic inflammatory reactions.
High plasma levels are observed in severe sepsis, septic shock, serious bacterial infections and systemic inflammatory reactions.
Increased PCT concentrations have been reported in both uncomplicated and severe forms of malaria.
The highest values are measured in the more severe forms of the disease; in response to therapy serum concentrations quickly fall within a few days. In our study we observed pediatric patients with uncomplicated and severe forms of malaria by Plasmodium falciparum.
We studied 62 patients, with age between 3 months and 10 years, hospitalized for malaria, in a rural hospital of Burundi.
Our investigation confirmed data that PCT plasma levels increase during malarial infection and reduce after specific therapy such as the plasma parasite density.
We reported correlation of elevated PCT values with high plasma parasite density, but we didn’t find a significant correlation between the highest plasma PCT levels and severe forms of the disease.
We think it could be usefull and interesting to diffuse the PCT determination in our hospitals for the therapy follow-up in imported malaria cases.

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