Outcomes of patients in Chagas disease of the central nervous system: a systematic review

Chagas disease is a parasitic infection caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi. One of the complications of the disease is the infection of the central nervous system (CNS), as it can result from either the acute phase or by reactivation during the chronic phase, exhibiting high mortality in immunocompromised patients. This systematic review aimed to determine clinical and paraclinical characteristics of patients with Chagas disease in the CNS. Articles were searched from PubMed, Scopus and LILACS until January 2023. From 2325 articles, 59 case reports and 13 case series of patients with Chagas in the CNS were retrieved from which 138 patients were identified. In this population, 77% of the patients were male, with a median age of 35 years old, from which most of them came from Argentina and Brazil. Most of the individuals were immunocompromised from which 89% were HIV-positive, and 54 patients had an average of 48 cells per mm(3) CD4+ T cells. Motor deficits and seizures were the most common manifestation of CNS compromise. Furthermore, 90 patients had a documented CNS lesion by imaging from which 89% were supratentorial and 86% were in the anterior/middle cranial fossa. The overall mortality was of 74%. Among patients who were empirically treated with anti-toxoplasma drugs, 70% died. This review shows how Chagas disease in the CNS is a devastating complication requiring prompt diagnosis and treatment to improve patients' outcomes.