Pathogenesis of Chagas Cardiomyopathy: Role of Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

D escribed by the Brazilian scientist Carlos Chagas morethan a century ago, Chagas disease (ChD) currently affects 8 to 10 million persons and causes more than 10 000 deaths each year.1 Originally confined to Latin American countries, ChD had been considered an exotic disease and received less attention from global health policy-makers and the scientific community than it could expect due to its high morbidity and mortality. Recently, the migration of infected persons to large urban cities and nonendemic countries changed the epidemiological profile of ChD from a disease of poor rural areas to a globalized problem of large cities in Latin America as well as most of the developed world.1 Although the recognition of the clinical and epidemiological importance of ChD has improved over the last decade, many gaps in our understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease hampered the development of efficacious treatments. ChD is