Abdominal computed tomography findings of malaria infection with Plasmodium vivax.

Abdominal computed tomography (CT) findings of malaria are not well-known even though malaria is a serious infectious disease. To identify abdominal CT findings, we selected 34 of 405 patients who had a positive peripheral blood smear for Plasmodium vivax and had underwent abdominal CT as the malaria group. We also selected 80 patients who had fever and a negative peripheral blood smear as the control group and 120 healthy people as the normal group. We reviewed and analyzed their medical records and CT findings retrospectively. The mean spleen and liver length were significantly larger in the malaria group and the incidence of splenomegaly, splenic focal low attenuation, and spontaneous splenic rupture were much higher in the malaria group (P < 0.05). Although abdominal CT is not an indispensable tool for diagnosis, these CT findings will help in the diagnosis of malaria in patients with fever.