Métodos directos e indirectos empleados para el diagnóstico de la enfermedad de chagas en fase aguda y crónica

Abstract

Chagas disease or also called American trypanosomiasis is a parasitic infection caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, this is a flagellated blood protozoan that reproduces normally in tissues. Said disease includes an acute phase that is characterized by being asymptomatic in most cases and a chronic phase that, in the case of presenting symptoms, mainly affects the digestive system, nervous system and heart. Objective: To identify the direct and indirect diagnostic methods used in Chagas disease, as well as their usefulness in both the acute and chronic phases of the pathology. Methods: To carry out this bibliographic review article, documentary research was used through a literature search in the Access Medicine, PubMed, Scholar Google, Elsevier, Scielo, INSPI and MSP databases. The keywords used in the search were: "Chagas disease", "Diagnosis of Chagas disease", "Methods used for the diagnosis of Chagas disease", "Chagas Disease", "Phases of Chagas disease" , "Evolution of Chagas disease" Results: Most of the articles consulted agreed that direct laboratory methods are used for the acute phase and for the chronic phase, serological or indirect methods are used, especially those with greater sensitivity. Conclusions: The diagnosis of this disease shows certain limitations, due to the low sensitivity of indirect methods due to the minimum amount of parasites in blood and the low specificity of parasitological techniques. That is why the WHO recommends that two tests be carried out in parallel of different principles or that use antigens to establish an adequate diagnosis of said disease. Despite having several diagnostic methods, there is no specific test to diagnose this pathology since the effectiveness of the diagnosis depends on the antigen used and the phase in which the disease is found.