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In vitro delayed hypersensitivity was studied in patients with either the chronic or the indeterminate phase of Chagas' disease. Normal healthy individuals were used as controls. The leucocyte migration inhibition test was applied using as antigen an extract of culture forms of T. cruzi or an extract of normal rat heart. The results showed that patients with the chronic phase of the disease reacted significantly with both antigens, whereas most patients with the indeterminate phase did not react with heart antigen and only five out of fourteen (35%) reacted with T. cruzi antigen. It is suggested that these individuals may represent patients about to develop the chronic phase of the disease. The relevance of these findings to the immune mechanism influencing the onset of the chronic phase of Chagas' disease is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pannuti C S (Instituto de Medicine Tropical de Sao Paulo e Departamento de Microbiologia e Imunologiado Instituto de Ciencias Biomedicas da Unrversidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil), Carvalho R P S, Evans A S, Cenabre L C, Amato Neto V, Camargo M, Angelo M J O and Takimoto S. A prospective clinical study of the mononucleosis syndrome in a developing country. 1980, 9: 349–353. A prospective aetiologic analysis made of 70 children and adults with the clinical and haematologic features of infectious mononucleosis (IM) in Sao Paulo, Brazil, revealed 65.7% due to EBV (31 heterophile antibody positive (HA+), 15 HA negative (HA - ) cases), 8.6% due to and 4.3% due to CMV. One case was related to viral hepatitis and one to drug hypersensitivity. The other 18.6% were of unknown cause. In the 46 IM cases positive tests were found for EBV/IgM in 93.5%, for heterophile by the absorbed horse Rbc test in 64.2% and by sheep Rbc in 37%. The immune-adherence haemagglutination test was slightly more sensitive than the horse Rbc test in 39 IM sera tested. In 41 EBV/IgM positive sera, EBV/lgA was present in 17/25 containing heterophile antibody and in 2/16 lacking heterophile antibody; anti-EA was present in 85%. The average age of HA + IM cases was 13.2 years and of HA- cases 4.7 years. Three HA + and 5 HA—IM cases occurred in the 0–2 year old age group. Few clinical features differentiated between aetiological agents. Exudative tonsillitis was the most helpful one a.nd occurred in 67.7% of HA + IM cases, 26.7% of HA - cases, in 1 of 3 CMV cases,and not at all in 6 infections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Myocarditis is not an uncommon finding in autopsy series of patients with AIDS, although clinically important myocarditis is rarely noted. We describe a 50-year-old woman with AIDS and chronic chagasic megaesophagus, without previous cardiac abnormalities, who experienced reactivation of Chagas' disease, characterized by the finding of Trypanosoma cruzi via direct microscopic examination of the buffy coat, xenodiagnosis, and blood culture; she developed fatal acute myocarditis. Reactivation of Chagas' disease in patients with AIDS has been reported, but in the great majority of cases it has been associated with central nervous system involvement. In areas where Chagas' disease is endemic, reactivation may occur in patients with AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a study about the detection of Trypanosoma cruzi in Triatoma infestans. The primary aim of the study is to explore and compare the potential usefulness of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and direct microscopical examination for detecting Trypanosoma cruzi infection in bugs used for xenodiagnosis.