Acute Chagas' disease in postrenal transplant and treatment with benzonidazole

Abstract

Transplanted organs may act as a route of transmission of infectious diseases, such as Chagas' disease. The aim of this study was to describe the transmission of the Trypanosoma cruzi through a renal transplant and the anatomo-clinical evolution of the patient after treatment with benzonidazole. The patient was a 31-year-old white male from the State of Minas Gerais in Brazil. He had renal failure secondary to diabetes and later received a kidney from a cadaveric donor. The patient was undergoing immunosuppression therapy with azathioprine, cyclosporine A, and prednisone. After the transplant, he developed an acute phase of Chagas' disease and complications from diabetes and died 2 months later. In the autopsy, T cruzi amastigotes were found in the transplanted kidney, heart, bladder, liver, and pancreas. An important reduction in the parasitemia was obtained through the treatment of the infection with benzonidazole; however, the patient died due to complications from diabetes associated with tissue lesions caused by T cruzi.