Marked elevation in plasma osteoprotegerin constitutes an early and consistent feature of cerebral malaria.

"Conflicts of interest: None declared."

"This work was supported by the Children’s Medical and Research Foundation, Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, Crumlin (O.S., A.C. and J.S.O’D), a Clinical PhD Fellowship from The Wellcome Trust, UK (C.A.M.), grants from the NIH (T.E.T., 5R01AI034969–14) and through a Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator Award (11/PI/1066; J.S.O’D.). The Malawi–Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme is supported by core funding from The Wellcome Trust (084679/Z/08/Z). For coordinating the cerebral malaria pathogenesis study in Blantyre we would like to thank Terrie Taylor and Karl Seydel (Michigan State University and Blantyre Malaria Project). For recruiting and caring for patients, we would like to thank the nurses and clinicians on the Paediatric Research Ward team (Malawi– Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme and Blantyre Malaria Project), and the nurses and clinicians in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health (Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Blantyre, Malawi)."