scholarly journals The remarkable pioneering contribution of Gaspar Vianna to the study of the neuropathology of Chagas disease

2018 ◽  
Vol 76 (12) ◽  
pp. 853-856
Author(s):  
José Eymard Homem Pittella

ABSTRACT Gaspar Vianna is considered one of the great names in Medicine and Science in Brazil. Yet, little prominence has been given to his studies in Neuropathology. He was the first to describe, in 1911, the histopathology and pathogenesis of chagasic encephalitis in the acute phase of Chagas disease, as well as the intracellular life cycle of Trypanosoma cruzi. Over 100 years have elapsed and Gaspar Vianna's pioneering study remains an example of a meticulous and still up-to-date description of central nervous system involvement in the acute phase of Chagas disease.

1993 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 111-116 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Eymard Homem Pittella

A review was made of the available literature on central nervous system (CNS) involvement in Chagas' disease. Thirty-one works concerning the acute nervous form and 17 others dealing with the chronic nervous form, all presenting neuropathologic studies, were critically analysed. Based on this analysis, an attempt was made to establish the possible natural history of CNS involvement in Chagas' disease. Among others, the following facts stand out: 1) the initial, acute phase of Trypanosoma cruzi infection is usually asymptomatic and subclinical; 2) only a small percentage of cases develop encephalitis in the acute phase of Chagas' disease; 3) the symptomatic acute forms accompanied by chagasic encephalitis are grave, with death ensuing in virtually all cases as a result of the brain lesions per se or of acute chagasic myocarditis, this being usually intense and always present; 4) individuals with the asymptomatic acute form and with the mild symptomatic acute form probably have no CNS infection or, in some cases, they may have discrete encephalitis in sparse foci. In the latter case, regression of the lesions may be total, or residual inflammatory nodules of relative insignificance may persist. Thus, no anatomical basis exists that might characterize the existence of a chronic nervous form of Chagas' disease; 5) reactivation of the CNS infection in the chronic form of Chagas' disease is uncommon and occurs only in immunosuppressed patients.


2001 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 291-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hüseyin Çaksen ◽  
Dursun Odabaş ◽  
Şükrü Arslan ◽  
Ahmet Faik Oner

2013 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarissa M. Comim ◽  
Bruna P. Mendonça ◽  
Diogo Dominguini ◽  
Andreza L. Cipriano ◽  
Amanda V. Steckert ◽  
...  

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