An unusual presentation of placental malaria: a single persisting nidus of sequestered parasites.
Muehlenbachs, Atis;
Mutabingwa, Theonest K;
Fried, Michal;
Duffy, Patrick E;
(2007)
An unusual presentation of placental malaria: a single persisting nidus of sequestered parasites.
Human pathology, 38 (3).
pp. 520-523.
ISSN 0046-8177
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.humpath.2006.09.016
Permanent Identifier
Use this Digital Object Identifier when citing or linking to this resource.
Placental malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum is a public health concern in tropical countries. Peripheral blood smears to detect placental malaria are often negative, and recrudescences are common during pregnancy. We performed placental histology on a series of first-time mothers delivering in an area endemic for P falciparum. A single nidus of malaria-infected erythrocytes was identified by placental histology in a single intervillous space from a woman who had no other evidence of peripheral or placental blood parasitemia. This finding suggests ring stage-infected erythrocytes sequester in vivo, or P falciparum can persist as a dormant blood stage form.