Key result
Chronic Chagas disease was associated with clinical peripheral neuropathies, with 16% (4 of 25) of patients exhibiting impaired sensation.
Why the study?
Is chronic Chagas disease associated with clinical peripheral neuropathies compared to matched controls?
Case-Control
Is chronic Chagas disease associated with clinical peripheral neuropathies compared to matched controls?
This study provides the first evidence of a detectable clinical peripheral neuropathy in patients with chronic Chagas disease.
May support neuropathy screening in chronic Chagas; hypothesis-generating from small case-control data and needs validation.
Twenty-five patients suffering from chronic South American Trypanosomiasis (Chagas disease) were clinically compared with matched controls. Four of the chagasic patients provided histories of mild sensory neuropathies and on clinical examination were found to have impaired light touch sensation, vibration sense and two point discrimination. Other conditions which could have caused this neurological impairment were excluded. This is the first study to provide evidence of a detectable clinical neuropathy in chronic Chagas disease. Although this was only a limited study carried out during a medical school elective, it correlates well with the preliminary, and as yet unpublished, findings of a much larger study being carried out in Buenos Aires by Professor R E P Sica.
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J I J A Woodhouse (1993) conducted a case-control in Chronic Chagas disease. Chronic Chagas disease vs. Matched controls was evaluated on Clinical peripheral neuropathies (impaired light touch sensation, vibration sense and two point discrimination). Chronic Chagas disease was associated with clinical peripheral neuropathies, with 16% (4 of 25) of patients exhibiting impaired sensation.
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