cerebral malaria means that the patient with demonstrable asexual forms of Plasmodium falciparum in peripheral blood smear who have disturbed mental state and in whom other causes of encephalopathy, such as bacterial, fungal, or viral
meningoencephalitides, drug intoxications, other metabolic disease have been excluded. In cerebral malaria, the mortality rate is up to 30% and most of death is within 96 hours, so is known as neurological emergency that urgent treatment should
be
required.
A 42 years old male patients admitted our emergency room with spiking fever 2 days before admission and drowsy mental state at the moming of admission day. The patient traveled in Africa 2 weeks ago. On physical and neurologic examination, the
hepatomegaly, drowsy mental state and divergent eyeball was observed. Brain CT scan was normal but pulmonary edema was seen in chest PA and mild increased protein(76mg/dl) was observed in spinal tapping. In peripheral blood smear, severe
thrombocytopenia and trophozoa of ring form and band form were found so diagnosed as mixed infected cerebral malaria. The patient was started the treatment of chloroquine and tetracycline and recovered 2 weeks after treatment. Cerebral malaria
should be
once considered as differential diagnosis in patients with unknown origin fever and mental confusion in intemalized society like modem.
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