Congenital Chagas disease: A cohort study to assess molecular diagnostic methods at the Chagas disease national reference center of Argentina

by Lopez-Albizu C, Cura CI, Ramirez JC, Peyran P, Benchetrit A, Danesi E, Sosa-Estani S. PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 2025,19(1): e0012785. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0012785

Summary: Mother-to-child transmission of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is the main route of transmission in vector-free areas. The National Institute of parasitology in Argentina and the PAHO/WHO Collaborating Center for Chagas Disease conducted a prospective cohort study of 499 children born to seropositive mothers. They compared the performance of two qPCR techniques with the gold standard diagnostic algorithm for Congenital Chagas disease, which comprises more than one parasitological test on children aged 0-9 months old and serology from ten months. Compared with this algorithm, qPCR showed 100% clinical sensitivity and 98 to 100% clinical specificity. These results demonstrate the clinical accuracy and effectiveness of qPCR SatDNA and qPCR kDNA for diagnosing congenital Chagas disease.

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