[Effects of maternal infection with Trypanosoma cruzi in pregnancy development and in the newborn infant]

Abstract

In the endemic regions of Bolivia the infection of the feminine population in fertile age by T. cruzi is frequent (20 to 50 % of the women in fertile age) and the rate of fetal maternal transmission is of approximately 5%. A great percentage of infected women do not transmit the infection to the fetus. The intention of the present study carried out at the Maternal-Infantile Hospital Germán Urquidi of Cochabamba (Bolivia) is to contribute to the knowledge regarding the pregnancy and birth of a newborn of Chagas infected women who do not transmit the infection to the fetus. 2124 mothers and 2,155 newborns were studied. The prevalence of infection by T. cruzi among these pregnant women is of 26,3%. Two groups of mothers were studied: 554 that presented infection by T. cruzi (group M+B-) and 1520 not infected (group control M-B-). Both groups of mothers are comparable in their anthropometric and obstetrical antecedents. The mothers (M+B+) are in average older than those not infected (p<0.05), which will probably have an influence on the number of gestations and abortion antecedents, which were of p<0.05 and p=0.01 respectively. Among the different anthropometric and biological parameters studied in newborns of groups M+B- and M-B -, no statistically significant differences between both groups were found. It can be inferred that the chronic maternal infection by T. cruzi seems to have no clinical influence, neither on the course of the pregnancy nor during birth, if a group of T. cruzi infected mothers is compared to a non infected group.