title: Amniotic fluid is not useful for diagnosis of congenital Trypanosoma cruzi infection.
abstract: Although Trypanosoma cruzi can be transmitted transplacentally and induce congenital infection, no data are available about the presence of this parasite in human amniotic fluid. We examined 8, 19, and 4 amniotic fluid samples (collected at delivery or by aspiration of gastric content of neonates) from control uninfected mothers (M-B-), infected mothers delivering uninfected newborns (M+B-), and mothers of confirmed congenital cases (M+B+), respectively. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), using nuclear and kinetoplastic DNA primers (Tcz1-Tcz2 and 121-122), were negative for all control M-B- samples, but positive for 5 of 19 M+B- and 2 of 4 M+B+ samples. To determine the number of parasites in the positive samples, real-time PCR using S35/S36 kinetoplastic DNA was performed. Only one M+B+ sample presented a high parasitic DNA amount, whereas the other six PCR-positive samples displayed traces of T. cruzi DNA. In conclusion, the release of parasites in amniotic fluid is probably a rare event that cannot be helpful for the routine diagnosis of congenital Chagas disease.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Chimie Biologique, Faculté de Médecine, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: Myrna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Virreira
authors.forename: Sabrina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Martinez
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Alonso-Vega
authors.forename: Faustino
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Torrico
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Solano
authors.forename: Mary Cruz
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Torrico
authors.forename: Rudy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Parrado
authors.forename: Carine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Truyens
authors.forename: Yves
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.forename: Michal
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Svoboda
mesh_terms: D000653:Amniotic Fluid / Q000469:parasitology*; D000818:Animals; D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000175:diagnosis*; D017931:DNA Primers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D014349:Trypanosoma cruzi / Q000302:isolation & purification*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers