Chagas disease and SARS-CoV-2 coinfection does not lead to worse in-hospital outcomes

Molina, Israel; Marcolino, Milena Soriano; Pires, Magda Carvalho; Ramos, Lucas Emanuel Ferreira; Silva, Rafael Tavares; Guimarães-Júnior, Milton Henriques; de Oliveira, Isaias José Ramos; de Carvalho, Rafael Lima Rodrigues; Nunes, Aline Gabrielle Sousa; de Barros, Ana Lara Rodrigues Monteiro; Scotton, Ana Luiza Bahia Alves; Madureira, Angélica Aparecida Coelho; Farace, Bárbara Lopes; de Carvalho, Cíntia Alcantara; Rodrigues, Fernanda d’Athayde; Anschau, Fernando; Botoni, Fernando Antonio; Nascimento, Guilherme Fagundes; Duani, Helena; Guimarães, Henrique Cerqueira; de Alvarenga, Joice Coutinho; Moreira, Leila Beltrami; Zandoná, Liege Barella; de Almeida, Luana Fonseca; Oliveira, Luana Martins; Kopittke, Luciane; de Castro, Luís César; Santos, Luisa Elem Almeida; de Souza Cabral, Máderson Alvares; Ferreira, Maria Angélica Pires; da Cunha Severino Sampaio, Natália; de Oliveira, Neimy Ramos; Assaf, Pedro Ledic; Lopes, Sofia Jarjour Tavares Starling; Fereguetti, Tatiani Oliveira; dos Santos, Veridiana Baldon; de Carvalho, Victor Eliel Bastos; Ramires, Yuri Carlotto; Ribeiro, Antonio Luiz Pinho; Moscoso, Freddy Antonio Brito; Moura, Rogério; Polanczyk, Carísi Anne; do Carmo Pereira Nunes, Maria

Chagas disease (CD) continues to be a major public health burden in Latina America. Information on the interplay between COVID-19 and CD is lacking. Our aim was to assess clinical characteristics and in-hospital outcomes of patients with CD and COVID-19, and to compare it to non-CD patients. Consecutive patients with confirmed COVID-19 were included from March to September 2020. Genetic matching for sex, age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hospital was performed in a 4:1 ratio. Of the 7018 patients who had confirmed COVID-19, 31 patients with CD and 124 matched controls were included (median age 72 (64–80) years-old, 44.5% were male). At baseline, heart failure (25.8% vs. 9.7%) and atrial fibrillation (29.0% vs. 5.6%) were more frequent in CD patients than in the controls (p < 0.05). C-reactive protein levels were lower in CD patients compared with the controls (55.5 [35.7, 85.0] vs. 94.3 [50.7, 167.5] mg/dL). In-hospital management, outcomes and complications were similar between the groups. In this large Brazilian COVID-19 Registry, CD patients had a higher prevalence of atrial fibrillation and chronic heart failure compared with non-CD controls, with no differences in-hospital outcomes. The lower C-reactive protein levels in CD patients require further investigation.