A report on Malaria and Blood smear

Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell
Two push-type peripheral blood smears suitable for characterization of cellular blood elements. Left smear is unstained, right smear is stained with Wright-Giemsa stain.
Main symptoms of malaria
Variations of red blood cell shape on blood film, overall termed poikilocytosis
The life cycle of malaria parasites. Sporozoites are introduced by a mosquito bite. They migrate to the liver, where they multiply into thousands of merozoites. The merozoites infect red blood cells and replicate, infecting more and more red blood cells. Some parasites form gametocytes, which are taken up by a mosquito, continuing the life cycle.
Blood smears showing various developmental stages of the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, stained with Wright stain and Giemsa stain
Micrograph of a placenta from a stillbirth due to maternal malaria. H&E stain. Red blood cells are anuclear; blue/black staining in bright red structures (red blood cells) indicate foreign nuclei from the parasites.
Electron micrograph of a Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cell (center), illustrating adhesion protein "knobs"
The blood film is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis.
Ring-forms and gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum in human blood
An Anopheles stephensi mosquito shortly after obtaining blood from a human (the droplet of blood is expelled as a surplus). This mosquito is a vector of malaria, and mosquito control is an effective way of reducing its incidence.
Man spraying kerosene oil in standing water, Panama Canal Zone, 1912
Walls where indoor residual spraying of DDT has been applied. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.
A mosquito net in use.
An advertisement for quinine as a malaria treatment from 1927.
Deaths due to malaria per million persons in 2012
Past and current malaria prevalence in 2009
Ancient malaria oocysts preserved in Dominican amber
British doctor Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria.
Chinese medical researcher Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her work on the antimalarial drug artemisinin.
Artemisia annua, source of the antimalarial drug artemisinin
U.S. Marines with malaria in a field hospital on Guadalcanal, October 1942
Members of the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations collecting larvae on the Danube delta, 1929
1962 Pakistani postage stamp promoting malaria eradication program
Malaria clinic in Tanzania
Child with malaria in Ethiopia
World War II poster
Disability-adjusted life year for malaria per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004 no data <10 0–100 100–500 500–1000 1000–1500 1500–2000 2000–2500 2500–2750 2750–3000 3000–3250 3250–3500 ≥3500

Blood smears are examined in the investigation of hematological (blood) disorders and are routinely employed to look for blood parasites, such as those of malaria and filariasis.

- Blood smear

Malaria is typically diagnosed by the microscopic examination of blood using blood films, or with antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests.

- Malaria
Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell

5 related topics with Alpha

Overall
Blood smear showing iron-deficiency anemia, with small, pale red blood cells.

Anemia

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Blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin.

Blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin.

Blood smear showing iron-deficiency anemia, with small, pale red blood cells.
Main symptoms that may appear in anemia
The hand of a person with severe anemia (on the left, with ring) compared to one without (on the right)
Figure shows normal red blood cells flowing freely in a blood vessel. The inset image shows a cross-section of a normal red blood cell with normal hemoglobin.
Peripheral blood smear microscopy of a patient with iron-deficiency anemia
A Giemsa-stained blood film from a person with iron-deficiency anemia. This person also had hemoglobin Kenya.

Causes of increased breakdown include genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia, infections such as malaria, and certain autoimmune diseases.

Clinical signs of loss or destruction include abnormal peripheral blood smear with signs of hemolysis; elevated LDH suggesting cell destruction; or clinical signs of bleeding, such as guaiac-positive stool, radiographic findings, or frank bleeding.

Figure (A) shows normal red blood cells flowing freely through a blood vessel. The inset shows a cross-section of a normal red blood cell with normal haemoglobin. Figure (B) shows abnormal, sickled red blood cells sticking at the branching point in a blood vessel. The inset image shows a cross-section of a sickle cell with long polymerized sickle haemoglobin (HbS) strands stretching and distorting the cell shape to look like a crescent moon.

Sickle cell disease

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Group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents.

Group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents.

Figure (A) shows normal red blood cells flowing freely through a blood vessel. The inset shows a cross-section of a normal red blood cell with normal haemoglobin. Figure (B) shows abnormal, sickled red blood cells sticking at the branching point in a blood vessel. The inset image shows a cross-section of a sickle cell with long polymerized sickle haemoglobin (HbS) strands stretching and distorting the cell shape to look like a crescent moon.
Sickle cell anaemia
Sickle cells in human blood - both normal red blood cells and sickle-shaped cells are present.
Normal blood cells next to a sickle blood cell, coloured scanning electron microscope image
Sickle cell disease is inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern.
Distribution of the sickle cell trait, shown in pink and purple
Historical distribution of malaria (no longer endemic in Europe), shown in green
Modern distribution of malaria
Base-pair substitution that causes sickle cell anemia
HBB gene (responsible for sickle cell anaemia) is located on the short (p) arm of chromosome 11 at position 15.5.
Scanning electron micrograph showing a mixture of red blood cells, some with round normal morphology, some with mild sickling showing elongation and bending
Possible advantage of being heterozygous for sickle cell anemia disease (A) vs. normal blood cell response (B) when infected with malaria
Percentage of newborns screened for sickle cell disease within Metropolitan France from 2006 to 2018
Percentage of newborns screened regionally and overall for sickle cell disease in Metropolitan France in 2018

In 1954, the protective effect against malaria of sickle cell trait was described.

A blood film may show features of hyposplenism (target cells and Howell-Jolly bodies).

Scanning electron micrograph of human red blood cells (ca. 6–8 μm in diameter)

Red blood cell

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Red blood cells (RBCs), also referred to as red cells, red blood corpuscles (in humans or other animals not having nucleus in red blood cells), haematids, erythroid cells or erythrocytes (from Greek erythros for "red" and kytos for "hollow vessel", with -cyte translated as "cell" in modern usage), are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate's principal means of delivering oxygen (O2) to the body tissues—via blood flow through the circulatory system.

Red blood cells (RBCs), also referred to as red cells, red blood corpuscles (in humans or other animals not having nucleus in red blood cells), haematids, erythroid cells or erythrocytes (from Greek erythros for "red" and kytos for "hollow vessel", with -cyte translated as "cell" in modern usage), are the most common type of blood cell and the vertebrate's principal means of delivering oxygen (O2) to the body tissues—via blood flow through the circulatory system.

Scanning electron micrograph of human red blood cells (ca. 6–8 μm in diameter)
There is an immense size variation in vertebrate red blood cells, as well as a correlation between cell and nucleus size. Mammalian red blood cells, which do not contain nuclei, are considerably smaller than those of most other vertebrates.
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Typical mammalian red blood cells: (a) seen from surface; (b) in profile, forming rouleaux; (c) rendered spherical by water; (d) rendered crenate (shrunken and spiky) by salt. (c) and (d) do not normally occur in the body. The last two shapes are due to water being transported into, and out of, the cells, by osmosis.
Scanning electron micrograph of blood cells. From left to right: human red blood cell, thrombocyte (platelet), leukocyte.
Two drops of blood are shown with a bright red oxygenated drop on the left and a deoxygenated drop on the right.
Animation of a typical human red blood cell cycle in the circulatory system. This animation occurs at a faster rate (~20 seconds of the average 60-second cycle) and shows the red blood cell deforming as it enters capillaries, as well as the bars changing color as the cell alternates in states of oxygenation along the circulatory system.
The most common red blood cell membrane lipids, schematically disposed as they are distributed on the bilayer. Relative abundances are not at scale.
Red blood cell membrane proteins separated by SDS-PAGE and silverstained
Red blood cell membrane major proteins
Affected by Sickle-cell disease, red blood cells alter shape and threaten to damage internal organs.
Effect of osmotic pressure on blood cells
Micrographs of the effects of osmotic pressure
Variations of red blood cell shape, overall termed poikilocytosis.

Lipid rafts that have been implicated in cell signaling events in nonerythroid cells have been shown in erythroid cells to mediate β2-adregenic receptor signaling and increase cAMP levels, and thus regulating entry of malarial parasites into normal red cells.

Many diseases involving red blood cells are diagnosed with a blood film (or peripheral blood smear), where a thin layer of blood is smeared on a microscope slide.

A schematic diagram of a dipstick

Malaria antigen detection tests

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A schematic diagram of a dipstick
Plasmodium Glutamate dehydrogenase (pGluDH) precipitated by host antibodies
Comparison of Plasmodium Lactate Dehydrogenase (PLDH) Malaria Antibodies

Malaria antigen detection tests are a group of commercially available rapid diagnostic tests of the rapid antigen test type that allow quick diagnosis of malaria by people who are not otherwise skilled in traditional laboratory techniques for diagnosing malaria or in situations where such equipment is not available.

None of the rapid tests are currently as sensitive as a thick blood film, nor as cheap.

Giemsa stained Trypanosoma parasites (Chagas disease pathogen)

Giemsa stain

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Giemsa stained Trypanosoma parasites (Chagas disease pathogen)
Whirling disease section stained with Giemsa stain
"Owl's-eye" viral inclusions, associated with Cytomegalovirus infection.

Giemsa stain, named after German chemist and bacteriologist Gustav Giemsa, is a nucleic acid stain used in cytogenetics and for the histopathological diagnosis of malaria and other parasites.

Giemsa stain is a classic blood film stain for peripheral blood smears and bone marrow specimens.