[Specific treatment attempt, with ticlopidine, of patients with Chagas disease chronic phase]. / Tentativa de tratamento específico, por meio da ticlopidina, de pacientes com doença de Chagas em fase crônica.

In a previous study, ticlopidine decreased the parasitemia and mortality of mice infected by Trypanosoma cruzi. Therefore, this drug was administered to 12 patients with Chagas' disease, in the chronic phase. For 90 days, 150, 200 or 250 mg were utilized according to whether the recipients were children, adolescents or adults, respectively. A fully unsuccessful outcome was documented, both serologically as well as parasitologically.

[Protective effect of benznidazole against parasite reactivation in patients chronically infected with Trypanosoma cruzi and treated with corticoids for associated diseases]. / Efeito protetor do benznidazol contra a reativação parasitária em pacientes cronicamente infectados pelo Trypanosoma cruzi e tratados com corticóide em virtude de afecções associadas.

Patients in the chronic phase of Chagas' disease and receiving corticoid because of concommitant diseases were treated with benznidazole, which was initiated at the same time of the use of corticoid in a group of 12 patients or 15 days afterwards in 6 patients. It has been proved in another paper that in the chronic phase of Chagas' disease corticoid use is associated with increased parasitemia, as evaluated by xenodiagnosis. In this study benznidazole use prevented this increase, and we suggest that in immunocompromised patients with chronic Chagas' disease the use of this drug could be useful.

Specific chemotherapy of Chagas disease: a comparison between the response in patients and experimental animals inoculated with the same strains.

Eleven strains of Trypanosoma cruzi were isolated from patients with Chagas disease in central Brazil by xenodiagnosis and inoculation into newborn mice. Biological characterization and isoenzyme analysis showed that 6 strains were type II (zymodeme 2) and 5 were type III (zymodeme 1). Patients were treated with benznidazole or benznidazole plus nifurtimox. Mice infected with each isolated strain were treated for comparison with the results obtained in the respective patient. Evaluation of cure of the patients was based on the indirect immunofluorescence test, complement fixation reaction and xenodiagnosis. For the mice, haemoculture, indirect immunofluorescence testing, xenodiagnosis and inoculation of blood into newborn mice were used. Tests were performed 3-6 months after the end of treatment. The cure rate was 66-100% in mice infected with type II strains and 0-9% in those infected with type III strains. The correlation between treatment results in patients and mice was 81.8% (9 of 11 cases). Type II strains were more susceptible to treatment, in contrast to type III strains which yielded the majority of therapeutic failures.

Morphometric investigations of the colon mucosa in chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infected rats.

The objective of this investigation was to study the morphometry of the epithelial mucosa in the chronic phase of T. cruzi infection. Nine young female Wistar rats were inoculated with T. cruzi. Ten months after inoculation the animals were sacrificed and the proximal colon was collected for morphometric measurements of the thickness of the muscle layers, the number of neurons in the myenteric plexus, the crypt cell population (CCP), crypt cell production per crypt (CCPC) and turnover time (TT) of the epithelium. There was no muscle layer hypertrophy but there was significant denervation in the group inoculated with T. cruzi, which also showed hyperplasia of the epithelium. The data suggest that denervation of the myenteric plexus did not induce hypertrophy of the propria muscle layer itself but altered the morphometry of the colonic epithelium in T. cruzi-infected animals, with increased development of CCP and TT. It is possible that this epithelial hyperplasia, as a consequence of a longer crypt cell TT, increased the absorption and secretion activities of the colon, which in turn may participate in the genesis of the enteromegalies observed in the chronic phase of Chagas' Disease.

[Experimental dilatation of the cecum and colon in rats. III. A model induced by prolonged administration of lactose in the diet of animals in the chronic phase of infection by the Y strain of T. cruzi]. / Dilatação experimental de ceco e cólon em ratos. III. Modelo induzido pela adição prolongada da lactose na ração de animais em fase crônica da infecção pela cepa Y de T. cruzi.

Female Wistar albino rats (30 days of age), weighing about 60 g, were inoculated intraperitoneally with 1000 parasites/g of the Y strain of T. cruzi. The strain of T. cruzi has been maintained by in vivo passage of the parasites from mice to mice in the Department of Parasitology, Microbiology and Immunology, Medical School of Ribeirão Preto. Rats of the same sex and age were used as controls. One-hundred days after inoculation the animals were allocated into 4 groups: group I (control), divided into subgroup L (fed lactose for 4 weeks) and subgroup S (fed saccharose for 4 weeks); group II (inoculated), divided into subgroup L (fed lactose for 4 weeks) and subgroup S (fed saccharose for 4 weeks); group III (control), divided into subgroup L-S (fed lactose for 4 weeks and saccharose for the following 4 weeks) and subgroup S (fed saccharose for 8 weeks); and group IV (inoculated), divided into subgroup L-S (fed lactose for 4 weeks and saccharose for the following 4 weeks) and subgroup S (fed saccharose for 8 weeks). The disaccharide (lactose or saccharose) was added to a standard laboratory diet, 25 g/100 g of the final weight of the diet. At the end of the experimental periods the animals were sacrificed in ether anesthesia. The volume of the large intestine was measured, and the weight of cecum and colon were recorded.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Levantamento de condicoes de saude por entrevistas domiciliarias: III. Vila Guatapara: metodologia, caracteristicas da familia e seu domicilio. / Survey of health conditions through household interviews: III. Vila Guatapara: methodology, family characteristics and its domiciliary

E feita detalhada descricao de um levantamento formalmente delineado para obter informacoes, a nivel domiciliar, sobre condicoes gerais de saude. Especial atencao e dada a referencia de episodios de doencas e acidentes.Apresentam-se os resultados obtidos na Vila Guatapara, sede do distrito do mesmo nome, no municipio de Ribeirao Preto, em 1972. Relatam-se as caracteristicas do nucleo familiar e de seu domicilio e algumas das caracteristicas pessoais dos moradores, correlacionando estas com a morbidade referida

Levantamento de condicoes de saude por entrevistas domiciliarias. IV. Vila Guatapara: caracteristicas individuais e morbidade referida. / Survey of health conditions through household interviews.IV. Vila Guatapara: individual characteristics and refered morbidity

Visando a estudar as condicoes socio-economicas e sanitarias em que vivia a populacao residente na Vila Guatapara, em 1972, procedeu-se a um levantamento completo das residencias que compunham essa localidade. Investigaram-se as caracteristicas da habitacao, habitos de criacao de animais, origem dos alimentos, fixacao na localidade, caracteristicas do nucleo familiar, a ocorrencia de doenca ou acidente entre os membros de cada familia na quinzena anterior a entrevista e no ano anterior. Da mesma forma, a ocorrencia de nascimentos e/ou obitos no ano anterior e as caracteristicas destes eventos. O trabalho de campo foi executado por estudantes de medicina e de ciencias biologicas e constava de uma entrevista com pessoa responsavel em cada domicilio. Os resultados do inquerito de morbidade foram cotejados com a "demanda" da unidade sanitaria local

Comportamento de subamostras do Trypanosoma cruzi em hospedeiros vertebrados e invertebrados. / Behavior of strains of Trypanosoma cruzi in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts

Semeando tripomastigotas sanguicolas da amostra "Bolivia" do T. cruzi em meio liquido de Warren e, 72 horas apos, submetendo a cultura obtida a uma centrifugacao por 10 minutos a 700 rpm, obtivemos duas subamostras: uma a partir do sobrenadante, que denominamos Bolivia "SN" e outra a partir do sedimento que designamos Bolivia "SD". Essas subamostras, revelaram-se patogenicas para camundongos,infectando 100% dos animais inoculados. As infeccoes de camundongos, com as duas subamostras, foram graves, com periodos prepatentes muito curtos, parasitemias altas e elevadas taxas de letalidade. Os tripomastigotas sanguicolas das duas subamostras mostraram diferencas significantes nos dados biometricos.O estudo dessas subamostras em triatomineos mostrou diferencas marcantes no comportamento biologico

Estudo do comportamento de tripomastigotas sanguicolas de subamostras do Trypanosoma cruzi inoculadas endovenosamente em camundongos normais e imunes. / Behavior of blood stream trypomastigotes of strains of Trypanosoma cruzy intravenously inoculated in normal and immune mice

E estudado o comportamento de duas subamostras de caracteristicas distintas, obtidas do fracionamento da cepa Bolivia do T. cruzi, atraves da inoculacao endovenosa de formas sanguicolas, em camundongos normais e imunes.Nos animais normais observamos que as formas delgadas desaparecem mais rapidamente da corrente circulatoria, enquanto que as formas largas cumprem o ciclo tecidual mais tardiamente. Nos animais que sobreviveram a infeccao previa pelo parasita, verificamos que as formas finas sao precocemente destruidas, ao passo que as formas largas sao mais resistentes aos mecanismos imunitarios, quer se tratasse de subamostra homologa ou heterologa

[Early immunological aspects in rats infected by Trypanosoma cruzi. I. Agglutination and immunofluorescence tests with antigen of trypomastigotes recovered in successive days of the infection (author's transl)]. / Aspectos imunitários iniciais observados em ratos infectados por Trypanosoma cruzi. I. Reações de aglutinação e de imunofluorescéncia com antígeno de tripomastigotas recuperados em dias sucessivos da infecção.

From rats infected with the Y strain of T. cruzi trypomastigotes were recovered in successive days to be used in agglutination tests (AT) and in direct immunofluorescence tests (DIT). Titres obtained in AT reached 1/640 with trypomastigotes in the fourth and fifth days, decreased to 1/160 in the sixth day and were negative in the seventh day; in the tenth day the titers were again up to 1/40 and reached 1/320 in the eleventh day. The DIT were negative with trypomastigotes in the fourth and fifth days, a few were positive in the sixth day and numerous were positive in the seventh day; again a few were positive in the tenth day and all were negative in the eleventh day. These results seems to indicate that the trypomastigotes are blocked by circulating antibodies when they are not agglutinated by immune sera in vitro.