Correlation between serum transferrin receptor and percentage of parasitemia in malaria. A preliminary report

The serum transferrin receptor (sTfR) concentration is an individual reflects of the extent of erythropoietic activity, and is a useful marker for monitoring erythropoiesis. Malaria is an important tropical disease with evidence of ineffective erythropoiesis. Although there have been previous reports concerning sTfR changes in malaria, these were descriptive studies of infected and non-infected case and there are no previous reports of correlation between sTfR levels and parasitemia in malaria. We performed an animal experiment to study the chronological changes in the level of serum transferrin receptor during infection with Plasmodium gallinaceum. The average level of sTfR in experimental chickens was 6.59 +/- 11.29 mg/L. The average percentage of parasitemia was 3.4 +/- 3.5 % (range 2 to 13 %). According to this study, there is significant correlation between both parameters (r = 0.921; p < 0.05).