Chagas disease reactivation after autologous stem cell transplant. Case report and literature review 2022

Juan David Rojas, and Mario Pereira, and Bibiana Martínez, and Julio César Gómez, and Sonia Isabel Cuervo
Departamento de Medicina Interna, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia; Grupo de Investigación en Enfermedades Infecciosas en Cáncer y Alteraciones Hematológicas, Bogotá, D.C., Colombia. juandrojas269@gmail.com.

Introduction: Chagas disease is an endemic parasitic infection in Latin America transmitted by triatomines. It is associated with risk factors such as poverty and rurality. After acute infection, a third of patients will present target organ involvement (heart, digestive tract, central nervous system). The remaining two thirds remain asymptomatic throughout their life. Pharmacological immunosuppression breaks the balance between the immune system and the parasite, favoring its reactivation. Clinical case: We present the case of a 58-year-old man from a Colombian rural area with a diagnosis of multiple myeloma refractory to the first line of treatment who required a new chemotherapy scheme and consolidation with autologous stem cell transplant. During the post-transplant period, he suffered from febrile neutropenia. Initial microbiological studies were negative but the peripheral blood smear evidenced trypomastigotes in blood. With a diagnosis of acute Chagas disease in a post-transplant patient, benznidazole was started. The evolution of the patient was satisfactory. Conclusions: Positive serology prior to transplantation makes it necessary to rule out reactivation of the pathology in the setting of febrile neutropenia. More studies are required to determine tools for estimating the probability of reactivation of the disease and defining the best cost-risk-benefit relation for the prophylactic therapy.

UI MeSH Term Description Entries
D009503 Neutropenia A decrease in the number of NEUTROPHILS found in the blood. Neutropenias
D006801 Humans Members of the species Homo sapiens. Homo sapiens,Man (Taxonomy),Human,Man, Modern,Modern Man
D012189 Retrospective Studies Studies used to test etiologic hypotheses in which inferences about an exposure to putative causal factors are derived from data relating to characteristics of persons under study or to events or experiences in their past. The essential feature is that some of the persons under study have the disease or outcome of interest and their characteristics are compared with those of unaffected persons. Retrospective Study,Studies, Retrospective,Study, Retrospective

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