title: Chagas' heart disease in Europe: an emergent disease?
abstract: Chagas' disease is caused by Trypanosoma Cruzi. It is considered as endemic in central and South America and is transmitted by several species of triatomic bedbug. However, there are other important ways of transmission between humans: vertical transmission and, above all, through blood products and transplants. In Chagas' disease, cardiac disturbances are the most important cause of morbidity, and they usually take place in the chronic stage. The symptoms are the same as in other dilated cardiomyopathies. The management of Chagas' heart disease may be even more difficult than other dilated cardiomyopathies. The increasing number of immigrants from endemic areas of Chagas' disease to developed countries would cause a radical increase in the incidence of this disease over the next years, however European cardiologists are unfamiliar with the disease. In this manuscript, we present our experience in order to stress the necessity of bearing Chagas' disease in mind as a possible cause of dilated cardiomyopathy in patients from endemic areas.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Cardiology, Spain bRadiology, Spain cInternal Medicine, La Paz University Hospital, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dobarro
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gomez-Rubin
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Recalde
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Olias
authors.forename: Montserrat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bret-Zurita
authors.forename: Emilio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Cuesta-Lopez
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Robles-Marhuenda
authors.forename: Jose Maria
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Fraile-Vicente
authors.forename: Jose Ramon
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Paño-Pardo
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lopez-Sendon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002598:Chagas Cardiomyopathy / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology; D021821:Communicable Diseases, Emerging; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged