Patent ID: 8685662

Claim:
A method for determining if a patient infected by Plasmodium falciparum is likely to have cerebral malaria, comprising measuring, in a blood, plasma, serum, or cerebrospinal fluid sample from said patient, a level of auto-antibodies directed against an Î± chain of non-erythroid spectrin, by putting said sample into contact with a fragment of the Î± chain of non-erythroid spectrin spanning from amino acid 1139 to amino acid 2472 of said protein, and measuring the level of auto-antibodies reacting with said fragment of the Î± chain of non-erythroid spectrin by immunoassay, wherein a level of auto-antibodies recognizing the Î± chain of non-erythroid spectrin which is higher than the level of auto-antibodies recognizing the same which is statistically observed in patients infected by Plasmodium falciparum but not suffering from cerebral malaria, is indicative of cerebral malaria in the patient.