[Last Modified: ]

December 2002
Answer to Case 97
This was a case of malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax.  Diagnostic features observed included:

Thick smear (Figure A):

• many parasites seen (rings, trophozoites, early schizonts, and gametocytes).  The presence of many nuclei in the schizont was suggestive of P. vivax or P. falciparum; the morphology of the gametocytes helped rule out the latter.

Thin smear:

• a large, sturdy ring with a single chromatin dot (Figure B).
• an ameboid trophozoite in an enlarged red blood cell (1¼ to 1½ × normal size) with Schüffner's dots (Figure C).
• a large gametocyte, nearly 1½ to 2 × the normal size of a red blood cell, also with Schüffner's dots (Figure D).

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