4 research outputs found
Efficacy of benznidazol treatment for asymptomatic chagasic patients from state of Rio Grande do Sul evaluated during a three years follow-up
Efficacy of benznidazol treatment for asymptomatic chagasic patients from state of Rio Grande do Sul evaluated during a three years follow-up
The efficacy of benznidazol on the treatment of chagasic patients from
the state of Rio Grande do Sul was evaluated during a three-year
follow-up. A cohort of 80 asymptomatic chronic chagasic patients or
blood bank donors (49 male and 31 female) was studied. Their ages
varied from 17-42 years, with a mean and a median of 30 and 35 years,
respectively. The 80 patients presented positive serology, hemoculture
and polymerase chain reaction (PCR). They were treated with 5 mg/Kg
benznidazol twice a day for 60 days. Serological, parasitological and
PCR methods were used to evaluate response. Serology was performed
using commercial ELISA and indirect immunofluorescence (IFI) tests,
parasitemia was monitored by hemoculture in LIT medium and PCR with
primers S35/S36 was used to amplify a Trypanosoma cruzi 330 bp kDNA
repetitive sequence. PCR positivity of 240 seropositive individuals was
compared using DNA preparations from whole blood/guanidine EDTA (GE),
buffy-coat/GE and frozen buffy-coat. Fifty non-chagasic individuals
were used as negative controls. PCR positivity was 86.7% for the frozen
buffy-coat, 71.7% for the GE/buffy-coat and 69.2% for the GE/whole
blood. The hemocultures became negative just after treatment and
remained negative during the three years of follow-up. In the third
year after treatment, 9/80 (11.3%) patients presented negative PCR and,
from those, four also presented negative serological tests.
Furthermore, a reduction in three serological titers was observed in
27/80 (33.8%) of the patients treated. Taken together, the results show
that four of the 80 (5.0%) chronic chagasic patients from the state of
Rio Grande do Sul were cured after treatment with benznidazol