Chagas' heart disease: evolutive evaluation of electrocardiographic and echocardiographic parameters in patients with the indeterminate form

• Autor(a) principal: Ianni,Barbara Maria
• Data de Publicação: 2001
• Outros Autores: Arteaga,Edmundo, Frimm,Clovis de Carvalho, Barretto,Antonio Carlos Pereira, Mady,Charles
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos Brasileiros de Cardiologia (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0066-782X2001000700006
• topic: Chagas' heart disease; electrocardiographic changes; ejection fraction

OBJECTIVE: To identify and associate potential electrocardiographic and echocardiographic changes in patients with the indeterminate form of Chagas' disease during long-term follow-up. METHODS: One hundred sixty patients underwent standard electrocardiography and two-dimensional guided M-mode echocardiography for left ventricular ejection fraction determination. Patients were followed up for 98.6±30.4 months, undergoing repeat electrocardiographic studies at 6-month intervals and echocardiographic studies at 12-month intervals. RESULTS: Based on the electrocardiographic findings, the patients were divided into group I, 125 patients (78.6%) with normal electrocardiograms throughout follow-up, and group II, 34 patients (21.3%) who developed electrocardiographic changes. Group II was further divided into group IIA (9 patients, 5.6%) with permanent electrocardiographic changes, group IIB (14 patients, 8.8%) with transitory electrocardiographic changes, and group IIC (11 patients, 6.9%) with changes appearing only on the final electrocardiogram. Left ventricular ejection fractions remained normal in the entire population studied and did not differ among groups. CONCLUSION: The indeterminate form of Chagas' disease clearly represents a benign condition with a favorable long-term prognosis. Although some patients develop electrocardiographic changes, left ventricular systolic function is well preserved.