Active clinical trials for "Chagas Disease"

The study is conducted to meet an FDA post market commitment to collect and report data on the performance of the ESA Chagas assay. A minimum of 50 donor specimens that are FDA-licensed ABBOTT PRISM Chagas repeatedly reactive (RR)will be tested with the ABBOTT ESA Chagas assay. In addition, minimum of 300 ABBOTT PRISM Chagas nonreactive (NR) unidentified donor specimens will be tested with ABBOTT ESA Chagas assay.

Chagas disease (CD) could be acquired by contact with the vector, transplacentally and by blood transfusion. The duration and clinical presentation of the initial acute phase of the infection may be variable, but the majority of patients are asymptomatic. The acute phase usually lasts a few months and, if untreated, the acute phase goes on to develop a chronic infection. The chronic phase usually continues for the subject's lifetime, and 30% to 40% of patients will progress to the chronic phase with a cardiac, digestive, neurological, or mixed form at 15 to 30 years after the initial infection. Progressive heart failure and sudden death due to ventricular arrhythmias are the main causes of death in patients with chronic Chagas heart disease. Objective: To evaluate cardiac involvement in children after pharmacological treatment for Chagas disease. Methods: Open exploratory study, blind for cardiological evaluation. Population: children treated for Chagas disease with at least 6 years after-treatment parasitological (T.cruzi qPCR), serological (IHA, EIA) and cardiological follow-up. Non-infected subjects were included as a control group for final cardiological evaluation. Treatment: benznidazole or nifurtimox, standard dose, for 60 days. Blood samples were collected at diagnosis, end-of-treatment and every 6-12 months thereafter. Electrocardiogram (ECG) was performed at diagnosis and every year after treatment. In this cohort, 24 hours ECG (Holter) and Speckle-tracking strain echocardiography study were performed at the end of follow-up for this study.

A clinical trial designed to compare the oral anticoagulation control obtained by an anticoagulation clinic and the usual medical care in Chagas and Non-Chagas disease patients.

BACKGROUND: Chagas Disease (ChD) remains as one of the most neglected diseases in the world, with 8-10 million infected people and only one marginally effective therapeutic. The lack of good biomarkers for active infection or clinical end-points poses a problem for assessing the performance of new drugs or therapeutic interventions. Among the biomarkers, several studies showed that Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-ProBNP) is accurate maker of left ventricular systolic and diastolic dysfunction. OBJECTIVE: Our long term goal is to establish The Sao Paulo-Minas Gerais Tropical Medicine Research Center (SaMi-Trop) as a Center of Excellence for Neglected Infectious Disease Research in Brazil. The Specific Aims are to begin that process by focusing on Trypanosoma cruzi infection with the goal of finding an array of biomarkers that correlate with parasite persistence and Chagas cardiac disease status that can be used to infer risk of disease progression and death as well used as markers of cure (parasite eradication) or clinical efficacy (stabilize or reverse cardiac damage) of novel drugs METHOD: The investigators established a prospective cohort of 1,959 patients with chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCC). The study is being conducted in 21 cities of the northern part of Minas Gerais state in Brazil, and includes a follow up of at least two years (baseline and 24 months) . The evaluation included collection of socio-demographic information, social determinants of health, health-related behaviours, comorbidities, medicines in use, history of previous treatment for Chagas Disease (ChD), symptoms, functional class, quality of life, blood sample collection and ECG.

To examine the genetics of human susceptibility to Chagas' disease, a leading cause of heart disease throughout Latin America.

T. cruzi infection affects approximately five million people in Brazil. The diagnosis of the chronic phase of infection is performed by indirect serological methods which, nevertheless, leave inconclusive results. One of the direct methods used for T. cruzi identification, blood culture in LIT (liver infusion tryptose) medium, presents low sensitivity in that phase of the disease. A negative result does not eliminate the possibility of infection, but a positive test has high absolute diagnostic value, which enables the indication of antiparasitic treatment. Molecular diagnosis (PCR) in this phase is promising and can be used as a confirmatory test, particularly when individuals present inconclusive results in conventional serological tests, such as ELISA, HAI and IFI. This study aimed at improving blood culture sensitivity in LIT medium by performing PCR in individuals with positive and inconclusive serology for chagasic infection.

Chagas disease is one of the most neglected vector-borne infectious disease worldwide. The first decades following the discovery of the pathology drove an international research enthusiasm, mainly concentrated on understanding the typical cardiac and digestive forms. Recently, research have been focused on vector control, which has been a huge success, at the price of neglecting the patients who already presented fixed and severe organic lesions due the chronic phase of the illness. This study focus on a rarely studied aspect of this pathology: the involvement of the lower urinary tract and it's symptomatology in adults suffering from Chagas chronic disease. Various studies have assessed the involvement of the lower urinary tract in chronic Chagas disease, the vast majority of them being on the animal model or very ancient human studies mainly on cadaveric specimen, the first of them being the primary description of Koeberle in 1963. Human symptomatology deriving from bladder, ureteral and urethral chronic chagasic lesions are yet widely unknown, and only a few Brazilian and Mexican studies have intended to describe the clinical and urodynamic presentation of these patients. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of urinary disorders in chronic chagasic patients and to describe their symptoms, through a complete clinical, ultrasonographic and urodynamic description.

The researchers in this trial want to analyze prerecorded patient data which provide information on benefits of the drug nifurtimox in patients with a sudden (acute) and long lasting (chronic) Chagas´ disease an illness caused by parasites mostly transmitted to humans by a bug. They also want to learn how often organs, especially the heart, are affected by the illness in treated and untreated chronic Chaga's patients. In order to find this out medical records of adult and pediatric patients in Argentina will be analyzed.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the influence of polymorphisms of the genes CLDN-1 (Claudina-1), LGALS3 (Lectin galactoside-binding soluble 3), SOCS3 (Suppressor of cytokine signaling 3), IL-28B (interleukin-28B), CCL5 (Chemokine C-C ligand 5) in the determination of clinical forms and in the percentage of cardiac fibrosis in patients with Chagas disease.

Chagas disease is endemic to the Americas, infecting between 16-18 million individuals. In immigrant populations in the United States from endemic areas, it is estimated up to 4.9% may be asymptomatic carriers of Trypanosoma cruzi, the organism which causes Chagas disease. Between 10-20% of these patients progress to development of end-stage cardiomyopathy with a high associated morbidity. Following acute disease, patients enter into an indeterminate phase which can last 10-20 years. The earliest sign of cardiac involvement usually is electrocardiogram abnormalities. The most common abnormality is right bundle branch block (RBBB), followed by left anterior fascicular block (LAFB), and left bundle branch block (LBBB). Recent studies have shown that treatment of patients at this stage with antiparasitics may delay the progression of overt cardiomyopathy. At the University of California, Los Angeles, there is a large population of immigrant patients from countries endemic to Chagas disease. The researchers propose that screening patients with conduction abnormalities on electrocardiogram may be a potentially useful method to identify patients with early cardiac manifestations of Chagas disease. The researchers hope to enroll approximately 300 individuals with RBBB, LAFB or LBBB on electrocardiogram to determine the incidence of Chagas disease in this patient population.