BACKGROUND Constipation is the main symptom of acquired chagasic megacolon. However, a number of patients with Chagas disease without colon involvement also have the same complain. This study evaluated the role of small bowel in constipated patients with Chagas disease with and without megacolon. METHODS Orocecal transit time (OCTT) and oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in constipated non-ch...

A case of acquired megacolon in a 62-year-old man with acute abdomen due to sigmoid volvulus is reported. The case was associated with the use of psychiatric medications. The aim in this report was to emphasize the differential diagnosis with Chagas megacolon. Anatomopathological examination did not show any evidence of denervation, ganglionitis and/or myositis, and the serological test for Cha...

The incidence and severity of Clostridium difficile colitis has markedly increased in recent years. The spectrum of Clostridium difficile infection ranges from asymptomatic colonization to fulminant colitis requiring immediate surgery. Medical therapy failure and the presence of toxic megacolon dictate urgent surgical treatment with unfortunate high mortality rates (35% to 57%). We broach herei...

To study the effect of intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) on the frequency of pneumonia with an experimental study, thirteen Sprague-Dawley rats were included. Eight out of thirteen animals were randomly assigned to receive 10 ml of benzalkonium chloride 0.2% (megacolon group) and five animals received 10 ml NaCl 0.9% (controls). Animals were anaesthetized by intramuscular delivery of ketamine....

Chagas disease is an endemic pathology in many regions of Brazil as in most countries of Latin America. The World Health Organization estimates that there are 17 million infected people in Latin America, including 300,000 new cases per year, and 2 to 3 million patients with chronic complications of the disease. Chagasic megacolon is a late complication of this disease and is defined by an incre...

Acid base balance was studied in 58 patients with active idiopathic proctocolitis; the condition of 10 of them was complicated by toxic megacolon. Arterial blood pH increased progressively with increased severity of the colitis and as the lesions became more widespread. Statistically significant differences were observed in pH values between the mild/moderate and severe forms and between the se...

BrAfedj 1990;301:1325-6 Toxic megacolon is a rare complication of shigellosis (bacillary dysentery) but it occurs with acute infections caused by Salmonella spp, Campylobacter jejuni, and Yersinia enterocolitica.'4 A correct diagnosis is essential because treatment with corticosteroids can cause serious, potentially fatal complications. Furthermore, an unnecessary colonic resection may be perfo...

OBJECTIVES Distinguishing the patterns of autoantibodies (AAB) against G-protein-coupled receptors in Chagas' cardiomyopathy and megacolon and the discovery of such a pattern in patients who are as yet asymptomatic could help to identify patients at high risk of developing the life-threatening complications of Chagas' disease. BACKGROUND Such AAB against receptors as beta 1 (beta1-AAB), beta ...

BACKGROUND The causative agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, is divided into 6 Discrete Typing Units (DTU): Tc I, IIa, IIb, IIc, IId and IIe. In order to assess the relative pathogenicities of different DTUs, blood samples from three different clinical groups of chronic Chagas disease patients (indeterminate, cardiac, megacolon) from Bolivia were analyzed for their circulating parasites...