[Radiological study on megacolon cases in an endemic area for Chagas disease]

Abstract

Introduction: A radiological study on the colon of patients from an endemic Chagas disease zone was conducted using the simplified opaque enema technique of Ximenes et al.

Methods: The study involved 291 individuals with a mean age of 48.8 ± 12.5 years-old, of whom 222 were seropositive for Chagas disease. Anteroposterior, posteroanterior and left lateral view radiographs were analyzed by visual inspection and measurement of the largest rectal and sigmoid diameters.

Results: From the visual inspection, megacolon was diagnosed in 14 (6.3%) Chagas disease patients. The mean diameter of the rectal ampulla among the Chagas patients was 6.3 ± 1.0 cm, similar to the measurement in non-Chagas individuals: 6.2 ± 1.0 cm (p= 0.391). The mean sigmoid loop diameter in the Chagas patients was 5 ± 1.6 cm, which was larger than among the non-Chagas individuals: 4.4 ± 0.8 cm (p= 0.001).

Conclusions: excluding the evident and probable megacolon cases, the Chagas disease population continued to present a significantly larger mean sigmoid diameter than that observed among non-Chagas individuals (p= 0.003).