The prevalence of clinical peripheral neuropathies in human chronic chagas disease.
Twenty-five patients suffering from chronic South American Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) were clinically compared with matched controls. Four of the chagasic patients provided histories of mild sensory neuropathies and on clinical examination were found to have impaired light touch sensation, vibration sense and two point discrimination. Other conditions which could have caused this neurological impairment were excluded. This is the first study to provide evidence of a detectable clinical neuropathy in chronic Chagas disease. Although this was only a limited study carried out during a medical school elective, it correlates well with the preliminary, and as yet unpublished, findings of a much larger study being carried out in Buenos Aires by Professor R E P Sica.
H/S Royal Army Medical College, Millbank, London.
J I
JI
Woodhouse
D000328:Adult; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000150:complications*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010523:Peripheral Nervous System Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D015995:Prevalence