Opposed circulating plasma levels of endothelin-1 and C-type natriuretic peptide in children with Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Table 1 Demographic, clinical, and laboratory characteristics of study groups

Characteristics	Study groups
	SM	UM	p Value	HC
Number of subjects	50	39		25
Gender female/male	20/30	23/16	NS^×	14/11
⁺Age (months)	30 (9–86)	35 (9–83.5)	NS^‡	31.5 (10–77)
⁺Onset of signs and symptoms in days before admission	3 (0–30)	3 (0–21)	NS
⁺sMODS	18 (13–26)	13 (10–20)	< 0.001
⁺Parasite count (μL^-1)	69,225 (155–900,000)	23,910 (425–180,000)	< 0.05
WBC × 10³ (μL^-1)	10.5 ± 5.9	7.7 ± 3.1	< 0.05	8.9 ± 2.6
RBC × 10⁶ (μl^-1)	2.9 ± 1.1	3.8 ± 0.6	< 0.001	4.7 ± 0.5
Mean Hb (g/dL)	6.8 ± 2.5	8.7 ± 1.5	< 0.001	10.7 ± 1.0
Platelets × 10³ (μl^-1)	159 ± 109	220 ± 132	< 0.005	381 ± 98
ET-1 on admission (fmol/ml)	0.76 ± 0.48	1.11 ± 0.98	<0.001^‡	0.49 ± 0.31
ET-1 after 24 hours (fmol/ml)	0.72 ± 0.49	0.95 ± 0.71	NS^‡
CNP on admission (pmol/l)	11.05 ± 6.58	11.49 ± 4.55	<0.05^‡	14.29 ± 6.4
CNP after 24 hours (pmol/l)	11.5 ± 6.83	9.92 ± 3.64	NS^‡

Data are mean (standard deviation), unless otherwise indicated. +Median (interquartile range). Wilcoxon rank sum test was used for testing of statistical significance unless not otherwise indicated. ^×Chi-Square test; ‡ANOVA. NS: not significant. SM: severe malaria; UM: uncomplicated malaria; HC healthy control; sMODS: simplified Multi-Organ-Dysfunction-Score; RBC: red blood cells; Hb: haemoglobin; WBC: white blood cells.

ISSN: 1475-2875