Renal Disfunction in Chagas Disease

Abstract

Background: Chagas' disease has a wide distribution in South America, having several forms of transmission. The disease's evolution varies according to the parasite/host relationship, presenting diversified progression through the acute, indeterminate and chronic forms. In the cardiac form, there are several clinical and laboratory alterations due to the involvement of several organs, including the kidneys. Actually, a lot of mechanisms are employed for the control and detection of renal damage. It has been proven that before the cardiac inflammatory changes were established, alterations in renal function could be observed due to elevated levels of urea, creatinine and other alterations compatible with the clinical picture of uremia. As well it was possible to verify an anemic state in laboratory animals, thus, it could be a condition known as cardio-anemic-renal syndrome described in patients with heart failure. Although there are studies correlating clinical and laboratory findings of renal dysfunction in Chagas' disease, there is still a need to elucidate some pathways of interaction between chagasic physiopathogeny and renal function.