Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ANA/42274
Add Chagas to Differential for Neuro Patients?
Published: Oct 15, 2013
By John Gever, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today
This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
NEW ORLEANS -- The potential for immigrant patients in the U.S. to develop severe neurological symptoms related to Chagas disease is underrecognized but real, a researcher warned here.
Up to 1 million immigrants living in the U.S. and Canada are estimated to carry latent infection with the amebic parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is endemic in Central and South America and which can reactivate in such individuals who become immunosuppressed, said J. Clay Goodman, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Because a variety of immunosuppressive agents are commonly used in neurological practice -- to treat multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, and other autoimmune conditions, for example -- neurologists should be aware of the risk in patients from Latin America, Goodman said at the American Neurological Association annual meeting...
Add Chagas to Differential for Neuro Patients?
Published: Oct 15, 2013
By John Gever, Deputy Managing Editor, MedPage Today
This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.
NEW ORLEANS -- The potential for immigrant patients in the U.S. to develop severe neurological symptoms related to Chagas disease is underrecognized but real, a researcher warned here.
Up to 1 million immigrants living in the U.S. and Canada are estimated to carry latent infection with the amebic parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, which is endemic in Central and South America and which can reactivate in such individuals who become immunosuppressed, said J. Clay Goodman, MD, of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.
Because a variety of immunosuppressive agents are commonly used in neurological practice -- to treat multiple sclerosis, neuromyelitis optica, and other autoimmune conditions, for example -- neurologists should be aware of the risk in patients from Latin America, Goodman said at the American Neurological Association annual meeting...