Health Care Providers
About 20-30% of people with chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection eventually develop clinical disease, predominantly cardiac. Cardiac disease usually begins with conduction abnormalities such as right bundle branch block and/or left anterior fascicular block, which may be followed years later by dilated cardiomyopathy. Later cardiac disease is sometimes accompanied by apical aneurysm and thrombus formation.
Less frequently, patients with Chagas disease experience gastrointestinal disease (megasyndromes). Once the characteristic pathology is established (e.g., dilated cardiomyopathy, megaesophagus), antiparasitic treatment will not reverse it.
For more detailed information, see Evaluation and Treatment of Chagas Disease in the United States: A Systematic Review in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Page last reviewed: October 23, 2007
Content Source: Division of Parasitic Diseases (DPD)
National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (ZVED)