Plasmodium falciparum EPCR-binding PfEMP1 expression increases with malaria disease severity and is elevated in retinopathy negative cerebral malaria

Table 3 Clinical characteristics of children with retinopathy positive (RP) or retinopathy negative (RN) cerebral malaria (CM) and children with severe malarial anemia (SMA)

	RP (n = 50)	RN (n = 47)	SMA (n = 47)	P ^a
Age (months), median (IQR)	40.1 (29.6–50.2)	42.0 (31.7–59.4)	33.4 (24.9–52.4)	0.23
Sex (male), n (%)	29 (58.0)	29 (61.7)	35 (74.5)	0.21
Weight-for-age z-score, mean (SD)	–1.30 (1.26) n = 49	–0.92 (1.71)	–1.98 (1.39)	0.002^b
Hemoglobin (g/dL), mean (SD)	6.34 (2.17)	7.80 (2.21)	3.81 (0.74)	<0.0001^c
Parasite density (/μL), median (IQR)	100,260 (21,830–415,920) n = 48	50,690 (10,780–273,100)	43,880 (11,940–156,040) n = 46	0.17
Parasite load (PfHRP-2, ng/mL), median (IQR)	3190 (1418–5222)	2491 (446–3900)	862 (288–2033) n = 46	<0.0001^d
Sequestered biomass (x10^8), median (IQR)	20,880 (11,037–44,350) n = 48	15,766 (2450–31,276)	6249 (1303–15,839) n = 45	0.0005^e

^aAnalysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey post hoc test adjustment for multiple comparisons with log10 transformed values for variables with no normal distribution. Chi-squared test was used for sex, with P < 0.017 considered significant to control for multiple comparisons.
^bIn post hoc testing, SMA differed from RN
^cIn post hoc testing, all groups differed from each other
^dIn post hoc testing, SMA differed from RP and RN. For RP vs. RN, P = 0.07
^eIn post hoc testing, RP differed from SMA. For RP vs. RN, P = 0.08
IQR interquartile range, SD standard deviation

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