Serum Glycoproteins in Naturally Acquired Malaria in Man

Daily alterations in the serum glycoprotein electrophoretic pattern during naturally acquired acute falciparum malaria were studied retrospectively. A unique α₁-glycoglobulin spike with a concomitant decrease in the level of the α2-fraction was demonstrable in every patient upon his admission to the hospital; β-glycoglobulin level was intermittently decreased, and glycoalbumin and γ-glycoglobulin remained stable. These changes were unrelated to the severity of clinical illness or changes in the hemoglobin or hematocrit values or in the total or differential white blood cell count and they were unaltered by pharmacologic doses of corticosteroids. Superimposed changes in the electrophoretic pattern which reflected significant clinical complications, ie, relapse, secondary bacterial infection, and/ or significant hepatic dysfunction, could be distinguished from those induced by acute malaria. Serial glycoprotein changes may be of significant diagnostic value when the diagnosis of malaria is obscured by the absence of a typical clinical picture or by difficulty in demonstration of