Malaria Disease Flashcards
What is hemozoin?
a crystallized aggregation of metabolized hemoglobin.
What are the four causative species of malaria?
Plasmodium falciparum
P. vivax
P. ovale
P. malariae
Why does a plasmodium create hemozoin?
The byproduct of heme metabolism, hematin, is toxic.
Plasmodium can always be identified by what feature in the blood?
Trophozoite rings
The most fatal plasmodium is…
Plasmodium falciparum
What plasmodium species are candidates for latent relapses?
Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale
This is the life cycle stage that allows for the latent stages.
Hypnozoite.
Where do hypnozoites reside?
the liver
Which species of malaria is most common in Africa?
P. falciparum
Which species is most common outside of Africa?
P. vivax
What is the name of the sexual stage of plasmodium? Where do they fuse?
gametocytes, in the mosquito
What is the infective stage of the plasmodium sp?
Sporozoites
Once entering into the hepatic cell, what form does the parasite take?
Schizont
The schizonts lyse the hepatocyte. What are they called then?
merozoites
Once infecting the red blood cell, what are they called?
Trophozoite
P. falciparum has a distinct shape in its ______ stage that looks _______.
gametocyte
Curved, like a hot dog
Schuffner’s dots are indicative of what species?
vivax and ovale
What is the intracellular structure that causes pathology in p. falciparum?
Red cell rosette
What is the main mechanism of death in children for p. falciparum?
cerebral ischemia
What cytokines are produced by plasmodium falciparum?
TNF, INFg, IL-1
What receptor is used to enter into RBC’s?
Glycophorin
P. falciparum creates a bunch of proteins and places them on the surface of the RBC. What are they called?
Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein: PFEMP
What do these knobs do for the RBC?
Help bind to vascular epithelial cells
Why is it that P. falciparum is so hard to find by the immune system?
Antigenic variation in PFEMP
The five main organ systems affected by infection are:
Brain (ischemia)
Heart and lungs (ischemia)
Splenomegaly
Hepatomegaly and pigmentation
What is the incubation time?
1-2 weeks
What species has a quotidian fever periodicity?
falciparum
What species has a tertian fever periodicity?
vivax and ovale
What species has a quartan fever periodicity?
malariae
What three types of inherited red cell alterations are protective against malarial infection?
Sickle cell trait
HgC
ABO
