Non-Invasive Chronic Asymptomatic Chagas Disease Screening Through High-Resolution Electrocardiography (ECG)

DE LA ROSA, EZEQUIEL; PAGLINI-OLIVA, PATRICIA; PRATO, LAURA; FRESNO, CRISTOBAL; WILLSHAW, PETER; FERNÁNDEZ, ELMER A.

Medical Science & Technology

International Scientific Information, Inc

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2017

Chagas disease (ChD) has become a global health problem with more than eight million people infected world- wide. Its asymptomatic form (ACD) is still a challenge for clinicians since patients are rarely detected at this stage and evolve undiagnosed to severe determined forms of the disease, thus becoming a source of non-vec- torial transmission. We have developed a non-invasive methodology to detect ACD individuals from healthy ones through surface ECG records. We studied 135 high-resolution ECG records (19 non-Chagasic, 39 ACD and 77 with other ChD classification) by means of a new non-invasive index called the ?very-low-frequency correlation index?, VLFCI. It is obtained from frequency domain analysis of RR and QRS complex duration time series. Using the VLFCI, a discriminant rule for ACD subjects prediction was developed, tested, and evaluated over all ChD subjects. Significant differences (p