The main purpose of this study is to compare the drug levels of sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine found when given to pregnant women for the prevention of malaria to those found in pregnant women given the same drug with artesunate for the treatment of malaria, and also with those drug levels found in non-pregnant women in other malaria treatment studies.
Pregnancy increases the risk of malaria progression and complications with up to a 10-fold increase in the malaria case fatality rate in areas of low transmission. Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is used widely in Africa for the systematic intermittent presumptive, or preventive, treatment (IPTp) during the second and third trimester of pregnancy and a national program of IPTp with SP has been implemented recently in Mozambique. There is evidence that the kinetics of several other antimalarial drugs are altered in pregnancy to the extent that doses are not adequate in pregnancy, however no published study has included a pharmacokinetic component to confirm that standard doses of SP are optimal in this vulnerable patient group. This study therefore creates the opportunity to study whether the pharmacokinetic properties of SP are altered by physiological changes that occur during pregnancy.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
PREVENTION
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
31
Ndlavela Health Centre
Ndlavela, Maputo, Mozambique
Pharmacokinetic parameters by measurement of whole blood levels of sulfadoxine and pyrimethamine and plasma levels of artesunate to determine Cmax, Tmax, AUC, half life, volume of distribution and clearance
Time frame: 0 hours (pre treatment) and repeated on day 0 or 1 at 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 hours, and days 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 42
Correlation of treatment outcome and gametocyte carriage with pharmacokinetic parameters and pregnancy status
Time frame: 0 hours (pre treatment) and repeated on day 0 or 1 at 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12 and 24 hours, and days 2, 3, 7, 14, 21, 28 and 42 , and time of birth outcome
Correlation of frequency of DHFR mutations at codons 436, 437, 540 and 581 in maternal and placental samples with treatment outcomes
Time frame: Day 42 (or day of withdrawal)
Birth outcomes in terms of major congenital abnormalities, spontaneous abortions, still births and neonatal deaths, gestational age and birth weight, placental weight, newborn head circumference, arm circumference and neurological development
Time frame: Day of birth outcome
Risk of harm by describing all adverse events and their causality assessments and changes in full blood count, glucose, bilirubin, creatinine, urea and ALT
Time frame: Days 3, 7, 14, 21, 28 and every 2 weeks thereafter until birth (for a minimum of 42 days) or withdrawal visit
Capacity building by describing the training and development of study teams and their subsequent skills attained
Time frame: Duration of trial
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