Longitudinal study of the indirect immunofluorescence and complement fixation tests for diagnosis of chagas' disease in immunosuppressed patients submitted to renal transplantation

Abstract

Clinical and serological follow-up of 7 patients submitted to renal transplantation and presenting positive serological reactions to Chagas' disease before immunosuppression did not show significant changes in indirect immunofluorescence and complement fixation titres for Chagas' disease, or signs and symptoms indicating exacerbation of the disease during follow-up. In addition, 18 of 66 recipients of renal transplants considered to be non-chagasic before immunosuppression showed at least one positive result to the indirect immunofluorescence test for Chagas' disease during the study period. The results suggest that the immunosuppression state induced in chagasic patients submitted to renal transplant did not promoted exacerbation of the chronic infection in these patients and not interfere with the serological response of chronic chagasics, thus permitting the use of these serologic reactions for diagnostic purposes in these cases. However, the positive results of the indirect immunofluorescence test in non-chagasic patients indicate the need for judicious interpretation of the indirect immunofluorescence test for the diagnosis of Chagas' disease in renal transplanted patients.