Objective: To validate the clinical scoring system for malaria in children devised in India and express the clinical significance.
Study design: Cross sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted from August-November 2016 at the Children’s Hospital, Lahore.
Material and Methods: Every febrile child between the age of 1-15 years admitted in hospital or presented in outdoor fulfilling the case definition of suspected malaria was included.
Results: Mean clinical score in proven and non-proven malaria cases were 11.38 and 7.41 respectively with p-value of <0.001. At score value of > 8.8, area under curve (AUC) was 0.937 (95% CI 0.879-0.995) with p-value of <0.001. All positive malarial cases (n=26) diagnosed by rapid diagnostic test (RDT) had a mean score of 11.38 1.76, while mean score of 7.41 1.86 was documented in negative (n=46) cases.
Conclusion: Our study validated the clinical scoring system for malaria in children with high impact and can be applied in resource limited countries like Pakistan.
MUHAMMAD ZEESHAN KHAN, ANJUM SAEED, FARIHA AHMAD KHAN, Fawad Ahmad Khan, Attia Bari, Samreen Ashraf. (2020) Efficacy of Clinical Scoring in Diagnosing Malaria in a Developing Country: A Cross-Sectional Study, , Volume 44, Issue 4.
