ELECTROPHORETIC CHANGES IN THE PLASMA PROTEIN PATTERNS OF PATIENTS WITH RELAPSING MALARIA 1

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Abstract
Eight patients with relapsing Plasmodium vivax malaria were found to have normal total protein concs., but depression in albumin and increases in the globulins, notably fibrinogen and 7 globulin. In the 2 of these patients that were studied by repeated electrophoretic analyses, the plasma patterns tended during subsequent weeks to return to normal, despite persistent infection as proven by later relapses. One patient with severe P. falciparum malaria was found to have an extreme depression of total protein conc. due mainly to reduction in albumin. It is concluded that the changes in the plasma protein pattern are of no diagnostic value, but that measurement of the total protein conc. and the albuminglobulin ratio may be of aid in evaluating the severity of the disease.