Young Patient with Chagas Disease Presenting Initially as Acute Chest Pain and Treated for Acute Coronary Syndrome

Introduction

Chagas disease, a chronic and endemic condition in 21 countries within the Americas, affects approximately 6 million people. The northeast region has always been particularly important for the disease. According to data from the Mortality Information System (Sistema de Informação sobre Mortalidade), between 1980 and 2007, Brazil registered 156,224 deaths from Chagas disease; of them, 20,472 were in the northeast region and 3,144 occurred in Pernambuco.

Classic symptoms of Chagas disease can include chest pain, commonly typical for angina. Records of Chagas patients usually relate typical acute anginal pain to superimposed coronary artery disease. However, microcirculation disease has also been suggested as a chest pain trigger. Despite the high prevalence of Chagas heart disease in inland northeastern Brazil, coronary artery disease remains the main cause of heart failure and acute coronary syndromes.

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