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Table 1 Clinical and laboratory characteristics of children in the present study

From: Viral pathogens in children hospitalized with features of central nervous system infection in a malaria-endemic region of Papua New Guinea

 

Malaria parasitaemia

No malaria parasitaemia

 

Characteristics

Viruses (n = 19)

Bacteria (n = 10)

Malaria alone (n = 69)

Viruses (n = 23)

Bacteria (n = 10)

No pathogen (n = 176)

P -values

Age

40 [29–80]a

36 [29–38]b

36 [23–60]c

7 [5–25]a

6.5 [5–18]b

15 [6–44]c

<0.001

Male sex

11 (57.9)

5 (50)

37 (53.6)

14 (60.9)

5 (50)

110 (62.5)

0.90

Convulsions

13 (68.4)

7 (70)

50 (72.5)

13 (56.5)

2 (20)

102 (58)

0.03

Neck stiffness

1 (5.3)

2 (20)

13 (18.8)

8 (34.8)

4 (40)

37 (21.0)

0.27

Kernig’s sign positive

0 (0)

0 (0)

4 (5.8)

2 (8.7)

0 (0)

9 (5.1)

0.90

Brudzinski’s sign positive

0 (0)

0 (0)

1 (1.4)

1 (4.4)

0 (0)

3 (1.7)

0.96

Impaired consciousness

10 (52.6)

4 (40)

38 (55.1)c

5 (21.7)

1 (10)

32 (18.2)c

<0.001

Haemoglobin (g/L)

71 [58–106]

78.5 [71–106]

85 [68–102]

91 [65–111]

101.5 [89–106]

96 [84.5–109]

0.07

White blood cells (X109/L)

8.4 [5.7–14.2]

7.4 [5.6–10]

8.6 [5.7–11.7]

7.9 [5.3–15.5]

8.6 [4.8–13.2]

9.8 [7.4–12.7]

0.50

Platelets (X109/L)

100 [63–222]d

147 [100–238]

103 [46–206]c

368 [197–378]

618 [305–992]

265 [165–390]c,d

<0.001

Lactate (mmol/L)

2.7 [2.0–4.6]

1.8 [1.2–2.4]

3.4 [2.0–5.3]

1.2 [1.0–4.2]

4.3 [3.3–15.7]

2.4 [1.9–3.3]

0.01

CSF leukocytes (cells/μL)

0 [0–5]

2.5 [0–30]

0 [0–5]

5 [0–10]

0 [0–5]

0 [0–5]

0.04

CSF protein (g/L)

0.3 [0.3–0.3]

0.3 [0.15–0.3]

0.3 [0.15–0.3]

0.3 [0.3–0.3]

0.3 [0.3–0.3]

0.3 [0.15–0.3]

0.35

Death

1 (5.3)

0 (0)

2 (2.9)

1 (4.4)

1 (10)

9 (5.1)

0.93

Discharged with disability

2 (10.5)

0 (0)

1 (1.4)

2 (8.7)

0 (0)

9 (5.1)

0.46

  1. Data are numbers (percent) for dichotomous variables or medians (interquartile range) for continuous variables. Due to viral and bacterial co-infections in 7 children, numbers do not add to 300.
  2. aSignificant post-test pairwise comparison (P < 0.05) between malarial and non-malarial infection in children with viruses identified.
  3. bSignificant post-test pairwise comparison (P < 0.05) between malarial and non-malarial infection in children with bacteria identified.
  4. cSignificant post-test pairwise comparison (P < 0.05) between malarial and non-malarial infection in children without virus or bacterial nucleic acids identified.
  5. dSignificant post-test pairwise comparison (P < 0.05) between malarial-viral co-infection and no pathogen identified.