Author(s): Sambo, Maria do Rosário ; Borges, Augusta ; Borges, Fernando
Date: 2000
Origin: Revista Portuguesa de Medicina Interna
Subject(s): malária cerebral; coma; síndroma neurológica pós malária; quinino; Plasmodium falcíparum; cerebral malaria; coma; Plasmodium falciparum; post-malarial neurological syndrome; quinine
The cerebral form of severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria is the commonnest and most important of the many neurologícal manifestations and complicatíons of malaria. The purpose of this article is to review, in some detail, our knowledge of cerebral malaria. By definition, cerebral malaria requires coma to persist for at least 30 minutes, alter a generalized convulsion, to make the distinction from transient postictal coma (this doesn't make sense as a definition - it only refers to cerebral malaria associated with convulsions). However, in clinical practice, any patient with asexual forms of P. falciparum in the peripheral blood and impaired consciousness, alter exclusion of other aetiologies, should be urgently treated as "cerebral malaria". Post-malarial neurological syndrome (PMNS), a self-limiting transient syndrome of median duration, can develop alter severe falciparum malaria. PMNS has been strongly associated with mefloquine treatment, although this does not account for all cases.
Das várias manifestações neurológicas e complicações da malária, a mais comum e importante é a malária cerebral (MC), devida ao Plasmodium falciparum. Faz-se uma abordagem da MC nas suas principais vertentes, alertando-se para a necessidade de se estabelecer uma definição correcta da mesma. Tecem-se breves referências à etiopatogénese, quadro clínico, diagnóstico, tratamento e prognóstico da MC. Faz-se referência à Síndroma Neurológica Pós-malária (SNPM), que define as perturbações neurológicas que ocorrem após a recuperação da MC.
