As part of a pre-treatment study of chronic Chagas infections, the parasitemia of 206 patients (85 men and 121 women, aged 7 to 80y)from Virgem da Lapa, Minas Gerais State Brazil, was evaluated by three xenodiagnoses per patient during a one year period. Each time, 40 3rd or 4th instar nymphs of Triatoma infestans were applied. The parasitemia was arbitrarily classified as: not detected (when all nymphs were negative), low (when the number of infected nymphs was less than 2%), medium (when it was higher than 2% and up to 7%) and high (when higher than 7%). The parasitemia was not detected in 105 (51%) of the patients, and was considered low in 55 (26,7%), medium in 27 (13.1%) and high in 19 (9,2%). There was no significant differences in levels of parasitemia in relation to sex or age, but the high parasitemia was more frequent among the patients with chagasic cardiomyopathy. Persistent parasitemia (all three xenodiagnoses positive) was observed in 100% of the patients with high parasitemia, in 22.2% with medium and in none with low parasitemia.
Chagas' disease; Xenodiagnosis; Parasitemia; Triatoma infestans