Pancytopenia with severe thrombocytopenia in asymptomatic malaria in advanced pregnancy: a case report.

Malaria in pregnancy is associated with significant morbidity and mortality, and requires early diagnosis and intervention. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for 98% of malaria cases in Zimbabwe and causes the most severe disease. Abnormal haematological parameters are a frequent finding in patients with malaria; however, they are rarely the sole presenting feature. We present the case of a 32-year-old woman in her fifth pregnancy, with a history of one previous caesarean section, who presented for caesarean section and was incidentally noted to have severe thrombocytopenia. Subsequent investigations at a tertiary institution revealed a pancytopenia with thrombocytopenia as the most prominent feature in an asymptomatic patient. The unavoidable caesarean section done under platelet cover was eventful, with severe intractable haemorrhage necessitating an emergency hysterectomy. However, the patient made a full recovery with antimalarial treatment and blood product transfusions. This case is presented to illustrate the need to consider malaria as a differential diagnosis in pregnant patients from malaria-transmitting areas who have thrombocytopenia. Previous studies have shown that thrombocytopenia can be a predictor of malaria in patients who present with fever, and a marker of disease severity, but has no utility in prognostication and follow-up.

Concurrent ruptured spontaneous heterotopic pregnancy and ruptured appendix with delayed presentation in the first trimester: a case report.

Acute appendicitis is the commonest non-gynaecological surgical emergency in pregnancy. However, the concurrent occurrence of acute appendicitis with a heterotopic pregnancy is a rare event and presents diagnostic challenges to unsuspecting clinicians and sonographers. We present a case of a woman who had a heterotopic pregnancy and was noted to have a gangrenous appendicitis at laparotomy, illustrating how a diagnosis of acute appendicitis could easily be missed in pregnancy. We report the case of a 34-year-old woman in the first trimester of pregnancy who had a missed diagnosis of acute appendicitis after she had complained of vague abdominal symptoms for three weeks. She presented to a gynaecologist with vaginal bleeding for three days and was noted to have a heterotopic pregnancy on ultrasound scan. At laparotomy, she was noted to have a gangrenous appendicitis with pyoperitoneum concurrent with a ruptured left fimbrial ectopic pregnancy. Left salpingectomy and saline lavage were done and she had uneventful post-operative recovery. Unsuspecting clinicians, in patients without risk factors, can miss both heterotopic pregnancy and acute appendicitis. As assisted reproductive techniques become widespread, the possibility of heterotopic pregnancies must always be considered and any patient who presents with vague abdominal symptoms must be suspected to have the possibility of acute appendicitis. Because of the unreliability of laboratory investigations and clinical predictive scores in pregnancy, sonographers must be specifically asked to scan for heterotopic pregnancy and appendicitis in suspected cases.