Observational studyPLoS neglected tropical diseases2020
Usefulness of real-time PCR during follow-up of patients treated with Benznidazole for chronic Chagas disease: Experience in two referral centers in Barcelona.
Observational study in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Ideal benznidazole dose regimen in chronic chagasic patients: a systematic review.Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo · 2020Pooled it
- Early assessment of antibodies decline in Chagas patients following treatment using a serological multiplex immunoassay.Nature communications · 2024Trial
- Towards new care strategies in a suburban healthcare center in La Matanza, Argentina: performance evaluation of rapid diagnostic tests for Chagas disease in a non-endemic area.Frontiers in cellular and infection microbiology · 2026Article
- ELISPOT-Based Measurement of Antibody-Secreting Cells and Memory B Cells Specific to Trypanosoma cruzi in Chronically Infected Subjects.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Chagas Disease in a Non-Endemic Setting: Clinical Profile, Treatment Outcomes, and Predictors of Cure in a 15-Year Cohort Study.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Article
- Article
- Knowledge about Chagas Disease among Family and Community Medicine Residents in a Non-Endemic Region: A Cross-Sectional Study.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2023Article
- B-Cell Responses in Chronic Chagas Disease: Waning of Trypanosoma cruzi-Specific Antibody-Secreting Cells Following Successful Etiological Treatment.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2023Article
- Parasitemia and antibody response to benznidazole treatment in a cohort of patients with chronic Chagas disease.Frontiers in parasitology · 2023Article
- Chagas disease treatment efficacy markers: experiences from a Phase III study with nifurtimox in children.Frontiers in parasitology · 2023Article
- Evaluation of the Chagas VirCliaPathogens (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Parasitemia Levels in Trypanosoma cruzi Infection in Spain, an Area Where the Disease Is Not Endemic: Trends by Different Molecular Approaches.Microbiology spectrum · 2022Article
- Differential tissue distribution of discrete typing units after drug combination therapy in experimentalParasitology · 2021Article
- Chagas Disease in HIV-Infected Patients: It's Time to Consider the Diagnosis.The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene · 2021Article
- Reduced Trypanosoma cruzi-specific humoral response and enhanced T cell immunity after treatment interruption with benznidazole in chronic Chagas disease.The Journal of antimicrobial chemotherapy · 2021Article
- Evaluation of the Performance of the Loopamp Trypanosoma cruzi Detection Kit for the Diagnosis of Chagas Disease in an Area Where It Is Not Endemic, Spain.Journal of clinical microbiology · 2021Article
- Benznidazole decreases the risk of chronic Chagas disease progression and cardiovascular events: A long-term follow up study.EClinicalMedicine · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAntitrypanosomal treatment with Benznidazole (BZ) or Nifurtimox may be recommended for patients with chronic Chagas disease (CD) to reduce the onset or progression of symptoms. However, such treatment has limited efficacy and high level of toxic effects. In addition, the current cure biomarker (serology conversion) precludes any treatment assessment unless a prolonged follow-up is arranged. PCR is thus the most useful, alternative surrogate marker for evaluating responses to treatment. The aim of this study is to describe the usefulness of real-time PCR in monitoring BZ treatment within a large cohort of chronic CD cases in Barcelona. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL
findingsA total of 370 chronic CD patients were monitored with real-time PCR post-BZ treatment. The median follow-up was 4 years (IQR 2.2-5.3y), with a median of 3 clinical visits (IQR 2-4). Only 8 patients (2.2%) presented with at least one incident of positive real-time PCR after treatment and were therefore considered as treatment failure. Four of those failure patients had completed full course treatment, whereas the remaining cases had defaulted with a statistical difference between both groups (p = 0.02). Half of the failure patients had undergone less than 4 years of follow-up monitoring all presented with parasitemia before treatment. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: BZ treatment failure was highly infrequent in our cohort. BZ discontinuation was a risk factor for positive real-time PCR results during clinical follow-up. Regular testing with real-time PCR during follow-up allows for early detection of treatment failure in patients with chronic CD.
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