[The assessment of parasitemia in women who are carriers of Trypanosoma cruzi infection during and after pregnancy]

Abstract

This paper presents an evaluation of the parasitemic profiles of 119 women chronically infected with T. cruzi. Xenodiagnosis (xenos) were applied during (465 xenos) and after pregnancy (363 xenos) in order to detect possible variations in parasitemia in these periods. The frequency of positive xenos was greater during than after gestation. Otherwise, the frequency of infected triatomines was wore elevated during pregnancy, indicating higher parasitemic levels in this period. Only 17% of the studied women had two or more positive xenos during pregnancy. In these mothers the difference between the frequencies of positive xenos during and after gestation was high, suggesting the occurrence of exacerbation of infection at least in some women.