Chronic Chagas' disease in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta): evaluation of parasitemia, serology, electrocardiography, echocardiography, and radiology.
Severe chronic damage to the heart and gastrointestinal tract in patients with Chagas' disease are often observed 10-20 years after the acute phase. The course of long-lasting infection with the Colombian strain of Trypanosoma cruzi was studied in seven rhesus monkeys infected for 15-19 years. Subpatent parasitemia was detected in all studied animals, using hemoculture (two of seven), artificial xenodiagnosis (three of seven), and a polymerase chain reaction PCR (six of six). High titers of specific IgG antibody to T. cruzi persisted throughout the chronic phase of infection. Abnormal electrocardiographic (three of six) and echocardiographic (one of six) patterns detected in the T. cruzi-infected monkeys were possibly related to parasite-triggered myocardial damage. The results suggest that rhesus monkeys experimentally infected with T. cruzi, besides reproducing the acute phase of Chagas' disease, also develop chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy.
Carvalho
Cristiano Marcelo Espinola
CM
Departamento de Microbiologia, Imunologia e Parasitologia, Instituto de Pesquisa Clínica Evandro Chagas, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Andrade
Márcia Cristina Ribeiro
MC
Xavier
Sérgio Salles
SS
Mangia
Regina Helena Riccioppo
RH
Britto
Constança Carvalho
CC
Jansen
Ana Maria
AM
Fernandes
Octavio
O
Lannes-Vieira
Joseli
J
Bonecini-Almeida
Maria Glória
MG
D000818:Animals; D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan / Q000097:blood*; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000469:parasitology / Q000503:physiopathology; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000469:parasitology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004452:Echocardiography; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D018512:Parasitemia / Q000469:parasitology*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011859:Radiography; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*
D000913:Antibodies, Protozoan; D007074:Immunoglobulin G