3 Causes of Cerebral Malaria

The cause of cerebral malaria is Plasmodium falciparum infection. The basis of disease of Plasmodium falciparum infection is the process of hypoxia due to obstruction of blood vessels in the organ. The mechanism of obstruction can be through a series of events, namely cytoadherence, sequestration and rosetting.

1. Cytoadherence is ripe PRBC attach to the surface of vascular endothelium. It is known that the Plasmodium falciparum infection PRBC has the power or ability attached to other cells, the endothelial cells of blood vessels and fellow erythrocytes infected or not infected. This mechanism only occurs in capillaries and post-capillary.
2. Rosetting is a phenomenon of attachment between the PRBC with one or more non-parasitic erythrocytes. When the bond involves more than 10 erythrocytes (PRBC and non-PRBC), then shape so as flower (rosette), so that this phenomenon is referred to as the rosetting.
3. Sequestration. Cytoadherence mechanism in capillaries and post-capillary will cause PRBC trapped in the vital organs and RES, especially the spleen. These events can not explain the existence of conformity to the degree of parasitaemia in the peripheral blood with the total number of parasites in the body and severity of clinical symptoms.

All three phenomena play a role in the occurrence of microvascular obstruction, and will lead to blockage of the capillaries as well as disruption of blood circulation in the tissue at the distal part of the organ in question. This may explain the pathogenesis of pathological disorders and various types of clinical manifestations.