[Association of encephalic vascular accidents and Chagas disease]

The frequency of strokes was studied in chronic chagasic and years of age, non-chagasic patients, older than 15 coming to necropsy in Uberaba, from 1979 than 1988. The study consisted of paired sex and age matched controls. Two hundred and eight pairs were analysed. Either ischemic or hemorrhagic strokes were found in 41 (19.7%) of the chagasics and in 55 (26.4%) of the non-chagasic, a difference not significant at the level of 5%. Twelve (75%) of the former had infarcts and 4 (25%) had brain hemorrhage; five (31.3%) of the non-chagasics had ischemic strokes and 11 (68.7%) had hemorrhagic strokes. The differences were significant to the level of 5%. The results indicate a high frequency of ischemic strokes in human Chagas' disease and demonstrate a lesser frequency of hemorrhagic stroke in chagasics when compared with non-chagasics.