Background:

Chagas disease patients can develop chronic cardiomyopathy; ventricular aneurysms are characteristic of this condition.

Objective:

A population of patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy with ventricular aneurysms was analyzed, looking for associations between variables sex, age, symptoms, left ventricular ejection fraction, size of aneurysms and presence of ventricular arrhythmias.

Method:

The patients were evaluated with a clinical history, electrocardiography, radiology, echocardiography and Holter.

Results:

Of 627 patients with CChC, 60 (9.6%) had aneurysms, 60%. There was a significant relationship between age older than 50 years and normal LVEF. The negative predictive value of Functional Class I and ECG without QRS abnormalities to detect LVEF < 50% or ventricular tachycardia was 47.4%. There was no significant relationship between QRS abnormalities with LVEF < 50% or ventricular tachycardia. Large aneurysms were associated with LVEF < 50% but were not predictive of ventricular tachycardia. There was no significant association between left ventricular end-diastole volumes and LVEF or ventricular tachycardia; patients in phase B1-2 did not present a greater risk of ventricular tachycardia than those in phase C-D.

Conclusions:

In patients with CHCC, a comprehensive study with ECO and Holter is recommended, the negative predictive value of the symptoms and the electrocardiogram is very low.

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