Immunohematological indices among school children and adolescents living in Manhiça District

Resumo

Immunohematological reference values reported in text books and obtained in western countries might not be applicable to sub-Saharan Africa. This study was aimed at determining these reference values for immunohematological parameters to be applied to children and adolescents living in highly endemic Malaria rural areas in Mozambique. A cross-sectional study was conducted in a highly endemic Malaria rural area in southern Mozambique, from August to September 2005. Apparently healthy children and adolescents were selected and blood samples were collected from 348 participants, of which 57.6% (190/348) were male. The mean age of the study population was 11.1 years (95%CI, 10.8 – 11.5). Plasmodium falciparum was detected in 56.5% (194/343) of the studied subjects. Hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular concentration hemoglobin and mean corpuscular volume were lower than those reported in western countries. However, total lymphocyte count, CD4+ T cells and CD8+ T cells absolute counts were higher in our setting. The findings have important implications in the current international guidelines for the management of medical conditions in our settings, particularly for the immunologic assessment of HIV-infected children and adolescents. Immunohematological values obtained in this study were different from those reported for age matched children and adolescents in western countries, with emphasis for CD4+ T cells counts.
Keywords: Immunohematological indices; malaria falciparum, Southern African; children and adolescents