Can Seropositive Blood Donors be Considered Asymptomatic Carriers for Trypanosoma cruzi?. A Validation Study in CHICAMOCHA Project

Abstract

Introduction: In order to identify the clinical deterioration of seropositive individuals for Chagas disease, it is necessary to observe the evolution of people infected by Trypanosoma cruzi (T. cruzi), who do not show signs and symptoms of cardiomyopathy on a baseline. Objective: To compare blood donors with positive and negative serology for Trypanosoma cruzi in the city of Bucaramanga. Methodology: The sample consisted of eligible donors with positive screening tests for T. cruzi, but negative for other infectious agents screened by blood banks. These records were matched with a random sample 1: 4 donors who showed negative results to all the screening tests. Participants were interviewed to know their socio-demographic aspects and to get a perception of their health status. Physical exams were performed and blood samples were taken for laboratory tests. Frequencies and proportions of participants were reported.  Hypothesis testing of no differences between the two groups using the Chi square test was performed, showing a 5% level of alpha significance.  Resultados: The sample included 2132 blood donors between May 2000 and March 2004. By using serological tests, it was identified that 488 (22.9%) were seropositive and 1644 (77.1%) were seronegative.  Seropositive donors were older people who belonged to a low socio-economic level and had no health insurance.  They also had a better perception of their health compared to seronegative donors (p <0.05). The perception of how the three evaluated systems worked (cardiovascular, urinary and gastrointestinal) showed no statistically significant differences between the two groups. Conclusions: The study findings allow us to infer that seropositive blood donors for T. cruzi could be considered as asymptomatic carriers without clinical evidence of cardiomyopathy.[Villar-JC, Herrera VM, Vega A, Moso F. Can seropositive Blood Donors be Considered Asymptomatic Carries for Trypanosoma cruzi? A Validation Study in CHICAMOCHA Project. MedUNAB 2015; 18(1):34-41]