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Background: Chronic Chagas disease (CChD), one of the infectious parasitic diseases with the greatest social and economic impact upon a large part of the American continent, has distinct clinical manifestations in humans (cardiac, digestive, or mixed clinical forms). The mechanisms underlying the development of the most common and ominous clinical form, the chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCC) have not been completely elucidated, despite the fact that a high intensity of parasite persistence in the myocardium is deemed responsible for an untoward evolution of the disease. The present study aimed to assess the parasite load CCC and its relation to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), a definite prognostic marker in patients with CCC.Methods: Patients with CCC were clinically evaluated using 12-lead-electrocardiogram, echocardiogram, chest X-ray. Peripheral blood sampling (5 ml of venous blood in guanidine/EDTA) was collected from each patient for subsequent DNA extraction and the quantification of the parasite load using real-time PCR.Results: One-hundred and eighty-one patients with CCC were evaluated. A total of 140 (77.3%) had preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (of ≥40%), and 41 individuals had LV dysfunction (LVEF of |
