ArticlePloS one2018
Monitoring the parasite load in chronic Chagas disease patients: comparison between blood culture and quantitative real time PCR.
Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk Factors for Progression to Chronic Chagas Cardiomyopathy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Pooled it
- Risk factors for vertical transmission of Chagas disease: A systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases · 2021Pooled it
- Association BetweenFrontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2021Pooled it
- A SpecificFrontiers in immunology · 2020Trial
- Antibody Recognition and Functional Activity Against a Conserved Trypanosoma cruzi Peptide and Its Natural Variants in Kinetoplastids.Acta parasitologica · 2026Article
- Clinical Progression of Cardiac ChronicPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Long-term outcomes of benznidazole treatment in chronic Chagas disease: A 27-year cohort study of parasitological cure and death in the Jequitinhonha Valley, Brazil.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Immunologic changes in the peripheral blood transcriptome of individuals with early-stage chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy: a cross-sectional study.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2025Article
- Molecular diagnosis of Chagas disease in patients with megaesophagus exhibiting negative or inconclusive serological results.Frontiers in parasitology · 2025Article
- Parasite Burden ofMicroorganisms · 2024Article
- Assessment of biomarkers and clinical parameters as predictors of survival in patients with chagasic heart failure.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2023Article
- Use of PET/CT to detect myocardial inflammation and the risk of malignant arrhythmia in chronic Chagas disease.Journal of nuclear cardiology : official publication of the American Society of Nuclear Cardiology · 2023Article
- Accuracy of Diagnostic Tests for the Detection of Chagas Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Parasitemia Levels in Trypanosoma cruzi Infection in Spain, an Area Where the Disease Is Not Endemic: Trends by Different Molecular Approaches.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Animal Models ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Trypanosoma cruzi parasitemia in chronic Chagas disease: Insights from hierarchical modeling.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Discrete Typing Units ofPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Parasite load evaluation by qPCR and blood culture in Chagas disease and HIV co-infected patients under antiretroviral therapy.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Over-dispersed Trypanosoma cruzi parasite load in sylvatic and domestic mammals and humans from northeastern Argentina.Parasites & vectors · 2022Article
- Chagas disease reactivation in rheumatologic patients: association with immunosuppressive therapy and humoral response.Clinical rheumatology · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDespite the improvements in diagnostic tools for detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in human blood samples, the isolation of parasite from bloodstream in the chronic phase of Chagas disease is challenging. Thus, there is an increasing interest in the development of strategies that allow an accurate monitoring of the parasite load in bloodstream of Chagas disease patients. Given that, the comparison of a classical diagnostic method such as blood culture and multiplex quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) was few explored so far. Therefore, this study aimed to compare the detection and quantification of T. cruzi load in the circulating blood of patients with chronic Chagas disease, using blood culture and qPCR techniques. METHODS⁄PRINCIPAL
findingsThe multiplex real-time quantitative PCR assay (qPCR) based on TaqMan technology was evaluated in 135 blood samples from 91 patients with chronic Chagas disease presenting indeterminate (asymptomatic, n = 23) and cardiac (chronic cardiomyopathy, n = 68) forms, in comparison with the classical blood culture (BC) technique. The total positivity of qPCR and BC was 58.5% and 49.6%, respectively. The median parasite load of all positive patients was 1.18 [0.39-4.23] par. eq.⁄mL, ranging from 0.01 to 116.10 par. eq.⁄mL. We did not find significant differences between T. cruzi load with age and distinct clinical manifestations of patients. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data suggest that qPCR can be an auxiliary tool for studies that require T. cruzi isolation from the bloodstream of patients with chronic Chagas disease, after the establishment of a parasite load cut-off that guarantees a relative success rate of parasite isolation using BC technique.
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