Case #403 – September 2015
A 25-year-old male presented to the ER with complaints of dizziness, headache, ear pain, fever, chills, and malaise approximately one week after returning from a missionary trip to Ghana. The patient claims to have been compliant with anti-malarial prophylaxis. A blood specimen was collected in EDTA and sent to the Hematology lab for processing. While admitted at the hospital, he developed thrombocytopenia, reticulocytosis, and hyperbilirubinemia. Figures A and B show what was observed on a thick blood film stained with Wright stain; figures C and D show what was observed on a thin blood film stained with Wright stain. What is your diagnosis? Based on what criteria?
Figure A
Figure B
Figure C
Figure D
Images presented in the DPDx case studies are from specimens submitted for diagnosis or archiving. On rare occasions, clinical histories given may be partly fictitious.