Chagas Heart Disease: Report on Recent Developments

Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease, has recently caught the attention of the medical community outside the endemic countries, particularly those involved in cardiovascular medicine and surgery. Carlos Chagas, the famous Brazilian physician-scientist, discovered the protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi as well as the clinical manifestations it causes. Interestingly, it has been shown that Chagas disease was present in South America long before it was discovered by Chagas in 1909. Paleoparasitological studies revealed that T. cruzi was present in tissues from mummies in coastal northern Chile from the period 4000 BC to 1400 AD.1,2 The current paper is not meant to be an exhaustive review of Chagas disease since it has been the focus of several recent reviews;3–8 rather it is an overview of several topics that we believe will be of interest to cardiologists and cardiovascular surgeons.