Use of the eie-recombinant-chagas-biomanguinhos kit to monitor cure of human chagas' disease

We used the EIE‐Recombinant‐Chagas‐Biomanguinhos kit (EIE‐Rec kit) developed by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Brazil, to monitor cure of chagasic patients who were treated during the acute phase of T. cruzi infection. Treated patients were previously studied by parasitological and serological tests and classified as cured patients (CP) (n = 10), dissociated patients (DP) (n = 6), and noncured patients (NCP) (n = 6). When sera of these patients were assayed by EIE‐Rec kit all sera from NCP and all sera from CP showed positive and negative reactions, respectively. These results were in full agreement with those obtained previously by the classical tests. Two DP showed a positive reaction; the remaining four displayed a negative reaction, similar to that observed in sera from nonchagasic (NCh) individuals, and could therefore be considered CP. Our results suggest that the EIE‐Rec kit could be used to monitor the efficacy of Chagas’ disease treatment. J. Clin. Lab. Anal. 16:132–136, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.