Cryostat sections with tissue amastigotes of Trypanosoma cruzi as a substrate for Chagas' disease serology

Sera from 30 chronic chagasic patients together with 52 control samples (34 with other pathological conditions and 18 from normal individuals) were titrated by the indirect immunofluorescent technique (IFA) on Trypanosoma cruzi amastigotes. Acetone-fixed cryostat sections of skeletal muscle of Rockland mice 10 days post-infection with the RA isolate of T. cruzi were used as substrate. Results were compared with titres obtained by conventional IFA on epimastigotes. All 52 control sera had amastigote titres less than or equal to 2 double dilutions (dd) as compared with epimastigote values. Out of the 30 chagasic samples, differences were greater than or equal to 4 dd (less than or equal to 1 log) for 22, 3 dd for 5 and less than or equal to 2 dd for the remaining 3, when comparing amastigote and epimastigote titres. These results show that the use of amastigotes in cryostat sections of infected tissue for performing Chagas' serology in a simple, adequate and sensitive method.