INGEBI   02650
INSTITUTO DE INVESTIGACIONES EN INGENIERIA GENETICA Y BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR "DR. HECTOR N TORRES"
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Follow up of parasitic response of paediatric patients treated with benznidazol monitored by conventional and quantitative PCR
Autor/es:
BISIO MMC; DUFFY T; ALTCHEH J; MOSCATELLI G; BURGOS JM; LEVIN MJ; FREILIJ H; SCHIJMAN AG
Lugar:
Rosario, Argentina
Reunión:
Congreso; VIII Congreso Argentino de Protozoología y Enfermedades Parasitarias; 2008
Institución organizadora:
Sociedad Argentina de Protozoología (SAP)
Resumen:
In this prospective study we evaluate the anti-parasitic therapy in paediatric patients (pts) with Chagas’ disease by conventional PCR (kDNA PCR) and Real-time PCR targeted to conserved motifs within the repetitive satellite (Q-PCR).We studied 80 children living in a non-endemic area who presented T. cruzi DNA in blood detected by kDNA PCR at time of diagnosis (T0) and were treated with benznidazole (5 to 8 mg/kg/day) during 60 days. A Q-PCR strategy was applied in 43 cases to estimate basal parasite loads and to follow-up treatment (tmt) of 38 of them at 7 (T1), 30 (T2) and 60 (T3) days of tmt. After T3, pts were followed-up by kDNA-PCR at 6 (T4), 12 (T5) and 18 (T6) months post-tmt.Pre-tmt parasitic loads ranged from 640 to 0.01 parasites/mL (p/mL), and were correlated to the pts’ ages at the time of diagnosis (coefficient of Spearman: -0.5832, P < 0.05). Out 80 pts, 36 remained kDNA PCR positive at T1 and 7 at T2. Two pts were persistently kDNA positive at T4, T5 and T6 suggesting no parasitological response. One of the kDNA-PCR positive pts was a 7 year-old boy whose parasite load declined from 8.28 p/mL at T0 to 0.1 p/mL at T1, relapsing to 0.63 p/mL at T2 and 1.16 p/mL at T3.The other patient positive at T3 was a 3 month old infant who displayed detectable parasitic loads in the three analysed samples; 512 p/mL at T0, 0.43 p/mL at T2 and 0.75 p/mL at T3.PCR was useful for sensitive diagnosis and therapy monitoring, allowing early detection of refractory cases. The high analytical sensitivity of the Q-PCR strategy support this methodology as a key laboratory tool to complement current Chagas disease diagnosis, as well as for monitoring etiological tmt outcome.