EFFECT OF SULFADOXINE-PYRIMETHAMINE THERAPY ON SOME HEMATOLOGICAL INDICES IN ALBINO WISTAR RATS

Background: Malaria remains one of the most pressing health problems in the world with an estimated 300 - 500 million cases annually of which 90% occurs in Africa. A lot of antimalarial drugs are formulated to adequately combat this debilitating illness which may directly or indirectly affect blood indices in humans.

The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine administration on some blood indices in adult Wistar rats.

Methods: Twenty one albino Wister rats with ody weight of 160-170 y were used for this study. The animals were randomly divided into three groups A, B and C comprising of seven (7) rats each. The group A rats served as control with no drugs administered.

Different doses of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine combination were administered orally to group B rats at 500 mg sulfadoxime and 25 mg pyrimethamine (1 tablet) while group C received a double dose of 1000mg and 50 mg (2 tablet) the drug was administered once. Blood samples were collected on the 3rd and 7th day after drug administration and were analyzed for some hematological parameters which are, hemoglobin estimation (cynmethamoglobin method), packed cell volume (micro hematocrit method), total and differential white blood cell count (manually counted), reticulocyte count (methaemoglobin reduction method and serum iron estimation (nitro-paps-monoreagent method).

Results: Restlessness, dullness and loss of appetite was observed in the first and second day after the drug administration on all treated groups but was more in the high dose group. These was a reduction in body weight of the test rats as compared with the controls as well as a significant decrease (P<0.05) in haemglobin concentration, packed cell volume while there was a significant increase (P<0.05) in reticulocyte count and serum iron concentration in the test when compared with that of the control rats.

Conclusion: The use of antimalarial drugs therapeutically and /or prophylactically can induce reversible changes in hemotological indices especially the red cell indices which might induce anemia.