Abstract
Four hundred four patients with chronic Chagas' disease were treated with itraconazole (6 mg/kg of body weight/day for 120 days), allopurinol (8.5 mg/kg of body weight/day for 60 days), or with a placebo of pure starch. Patients were monitored over a period of four years by clinical examination, serology, xenodiagnosis, hemoculture, and electrocardiogram. Drug tolerance was good, with only four treatments discontinued due to side effects that subsided after suspension of treatment. Parasitologic cure was evident in 44% of the those treated with allopurinol and 53% of those treated with itraconazole, and the electrocardiographic evaluation showed normalization in 36.5% and 48.2%, respectively, of patients with chronic or recent cardiopathy.
Publication types
-
Clinical Trial
-
Randomized Controlled Trial
MeSH terms
-
Adolescent
-
Adult
-
Allopurinol / adverse effects
-
Allopurinol / therapeutic use*
-
Animals
-
Antibodies, Protozoan / blood
-
Antifungal Agents / adverse effects
-
Antifungal Agents / therapeutic use*
-
Antimetabolites / adverse effects
-
Antimetabolites / therapeutic use*
-
Biological Assay
-
Chagas Cardiomyopathy / drug therapy
-
Chagas Cardiomyopathy / physiopathology
-
Chagas Disease / diagnosis
-
Chagas Disease / drug therapy*
-
Chagas Disease / physiopathology
-
Child
-
Chronic Disease
-
Double-Blind Method
-
Electrocardiography
-
Follow-Up Studies
-
Humans
-
Insect Vectors / parasitology
-
Itraconazole / adverse effects
-
Itraconazole / therapeutic use*
-
Middle Aged
-
Nymph / parasitology
-
Triatoma / parasitology
-
Trypanosoma cruzi / immunology
-
Trypanosoma cruzi / isolation & purification
Substances
-
Antibodies, Protozoan
-
Antifungal Agents
-
Antimetabolites
-
Itraconazole
-
Allopurinol