title: Should trypanocidal therapy be used to treat patients in the chronic phase of Chagas disease?
abstract: Antiparasitic treatment of patients with Chagas disease in chronic stage could prevent the complications related to the disease. Searching in Epistemonikos database, which is maintained by screening 30 databases, we identified five systematic reviews including eight randomized trials and 11 observational studies. We combined the evidence using meta-analysis and generated a summary of findings table following the GRADE approach. We concluded it is not clear whether antiparasitic treatment improves survival or reduces complications related to chronic Chagas disease because the certainty of the evidence is very low.
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Clínica Médica, Hospital Alemán, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Programa de Medicina Basada en Pruebas, Hospital Alemán, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Proyecto Epistemonikos, Santiago, Chile. Address: Pueyrredon 1640, C118AAT, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Email: ariel.izcovich@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Popoff
authors.affiliation: Servicio de Clínica Médica, Hospital Alemán, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Programa de Medicina Basada en Pruebas, Hospital Alemán, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Proyecto Epistemonikos, Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Ariel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Izcovich
mesh_terms: D014355:Chagas Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000469:parasitology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014344:Trypanocidal Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D014344:Trypanocidal Agents