Amniotic fluid is not useful for diagnosis of congenital Trypanosoma cruzi infection.
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.
Virreira
Myrna
M
Laboratoire de Chimie Biologique, Faculté de Médecine, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Brussels, Belgium.
Martinez
Sabrina
S
Alonso-Vega
Cristina
C
Torrico
Faustino
F
Solano
Marco
M
Torrico
Mary Cruz
MC
Parrado
Rudy
R
Truyens
Carine
C
Carlier
Yves
Y
Svoboda
Michal
M
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*
D017931:DNA Primers