Chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy: clinical and serologic evolution with and without benznidazole in long-term follow-up.

VIOTTI R; VIGLIANO C; LOCOCO B; ARMENTI H; LAPUENTE A; SEGURA E

Proceedings of the XIII World Congress of Cardiology

Monduzzi

Lugar: Bologna; Año: 1998; p. 1 - 5

We present the effect of treatment with a trypanocidal drug, benznidazole, after a mean period of 10 years follow-up in patients chronically infected with Trypanosoma cruzi, the etiological agent of Chagas´ disease. The treated patients (TP) (n=122) presented an improvement in the clinical outcome as compared with untreated patients (UTP) (n=135). ECG abnormalities appeared in 5.7% of TP as compared with 20% in UTP, and progression to a more severe cardiopathy was observed in 6.5% vs 15% in TP and UTP respectively. In addition, treatment induced negative seroconversión of serological tests in 30% of TP as compared with 10% of UTP at the end of study.