Abstractobjective To evaluate the serological and parasitological status of patients with chronic Chagas disease (CD) after chemotherapy with benzonidazole.methods Retrospective study of patients treated with benzonidazole (5 mg ⁄ kg ⁄ day for 60 days) between 1980 and 2010. Twenty-nine patients who had CD confirmed by two reagent immunological tests and ⁄ or one positive xenodiagnosis before treatment were included. Conventional serology (ELISA and IIF) and parasitological tests (haemoculture and N-PCR) were performed.results At the time of treatment, the mean age of patients was 36 ± 7.24 years (20-39 years) and the time post-treatment varied from 1 to 29 years. After chemotherapy, all individuals had reagent ELISA and 93.1% had positive results for the IIF test. T. cruzi DNA was detected by N-PCR in 48.3%. Negative results were observed in 41.4% and inconclusive ones in 10.3%. Haemoculture was negative for all individuals.conclusions Our results suggest that N-PCR may be useful in the early identification of therapeutic failure of CD. Although it is difficult to determine parasitological cure in negative N-PCR cases, we can infer that this condition represents a declination of parasitaemia as a favourable consequence of aetiological treatment.
As all patients presented with clinical signs suggestive of the digestive form of CD and most of them were born in endemic areas, we highlight the importance of improving diagnosis of the disease and the implications for blood bank screening. Our data suggest that N-PCR is effective in the detection of T. cruzi DNA in patients with inconclusive or negative serology, and it may eventually be useful in the determination of the etiology of megaesophagus.
HighlightsThis is the first meta-analysis of individual data in chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection after treatment.The probability of seroreversion is variable along the course of follow-up.An interaction was found between age at treatment and country setting.The course of parasitological/molecular tests after treatment needs to be assessed.
Chagas disease, which is caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, is transmitted primarily by triatomine bugs, although the incidence of new cases has decreased as a result of vector control. In Brazil, most of those affected have the chronic form of the disease and are generally elderly individuals who require appropriate clinical follow-up. In this work, we undertook a descriptive study in which 85 patients were interviewed and blood samples were collected for molecular analyses based on the amplification of parasite satellite DNA. The cardiac form of the disease was the most prevalent among the patients and hypertension was the most frequent comorbidity; polypharmacy was detected in 34% of the cases. Serological tests were positive in 95% of cases while 36% were positive in nested-polymerase chain reaction. These findings indicate an increased use of medications and a larger number of age-related diseases in elderly patients with Chagas disease, even in patients with low parasitemia. We conclude that elderly patients with Chagas disease require special attention and that further studies should be done with elderly individuals who carry this disease.
Abstract. This article presents the development of a master's research directed to automatically construct concept maps for the summarization of text in
IntroduçãoMapas conceituais são ferramentas gráficas para a representação e construção do conhecimento [Novak & Canãs 2010]. Conceitos e relações formam a base para o aprendizado e, portanto, os mapas conceituais têm sido amplamente utilizados em diferentes situações e propósitos na educação, sendo uma delas a representação do texto escrito. Mesmo um gramático e complexo texto pode ser representado por um mapa conceitual contendo apenas conceitos e relações que representem o que foi expresso no texto de uma forma mais complexa.No entanto, a construção manual de um mapa conceitual exige bastante tempo e esforço na identificação e estruturação do conhecimento, especialmente quando o mapa não deve representar os conceitos existentes na estrutura cognitiva do autor. Em vez disso, o mapa deve representar os conceitos expressos em um texto, geralmente de um outro autor. Assim, várias abordagens tecnológicas têm sido propostas para facilitar esse processo de construção.Este artigo apresenta uma nova abordagem para a construção automática de mapas conceituais como sumarização de textos acadêmicos em idiomas português e inglês. A sumarização produz um mapa conceitual como uma representação resumida do texto,
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