Involvement of the autonomic nervous system in Chagas heart disease

Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical

Edison Reis Lopes²  Washington Luiz Tafuri¹ 

[1] ,Faculdade de Medicina do Triângulo MineiroUberaba MG

关键词: Chagas' disease;    Trypanosomiasis cruzi;    Chagas' heart disease;    Autonomic nervous system;    Doença de Chagas;    Tripanossomose cruzi;    Cardiopatia chagásica;    Sistema nervoso autônomo;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S0037-86821983000400007

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

The autonomic nervous system and especially the intracardiac autonomic nervous system is involved in Chagas' disease. Ganglionitis and periganglionitis were noted in three groups ofpatients dying with Chagas'disease: 1) Those in heart failure; 2) Those dying a sudden, non violent death and; 3) Those dying as a consequence ofaccidents or homicide. Hearts in the threegroups also revealed myocarditis and scattered involvement of intramyocardial ganglion cells as well as lesions of myelinic and unmyelinic fibers ascribable to Chagas'disease. In mice with experimentally induced Chagas' disease weobserved more intensive neuronal lesions of the cardiac ganglia in the acute phase of infection. Perhaps neuronal loss has a role in the pathogenesis of Chagas cardiomyopathy. However based on our own experience and on other data from the literature we conclude that the loss of neurones is not the main factor responsible for the manifestations exhibited by chronic chagasic patients. On the other hand the neuronal lesions may have played a role in the sudden death ofone group of patients with Chagas'disease but is difficult to explain the group of patients who did not die sudderly but instead progressed to cardiac failure.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
 All the contents of this journal, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License