Cardiac parasympathetic abnormalities: Cause or consequence of chagas heart disease?

Abstract

The mechanisms by which Trypanosoma cruzi causes cardiomyopathy are unknown but are the subject o f several hypotheses. In this paper, Diego Davila, Osman Rossell and Jose Donis discuss the aetiology of cardiac failure in Chagas disease and suggest that parasympathetic abnormalities are a consequence of, rather than the cause of, the progressive cardiac enlargement seen in these patients.