Natural history of chronic

Universidade de Siio Paulo- Siio Paulo, Brazil Chronic Chagas ' disease shows several progression modes. Usually, the different clinical syndromes manifest themselves together, however, isolated forms can occur. Cardiac arrhythmias, which are very frequent, are present in about 50 % of patients. The cardiac damage manifests itself later, with the emergence of heart failure. Thromboembolism can occur in both pulmonary and systemic circulation. Pulmonary embolism is the most frequent, appearing in more advanced phases of heart disease. Sudden death is the fatal outcome of these patients. It predominates in males and it generally occurs in a disease stage when patients have their highest productivity. The presence of serious ventricular arrhythmias, conduction disturbances in the eletrocardiogram, and heart failure, provide an unfavorable prognosis. UNITERMS: Chronic Chagas ' disease. Natural history. Prognostic. The chronic Chagas ' disease cardiomyopathy wasfirst studied in 1922 by Chagas and Villela (5).The chronic cardiomyopathy comprises the most important clinical form of the disease. Those authors have been able to establish conclusions very clear about its clinical picture, progression and disease prognosis since that time. After the acute phase, which lasts about two months, the patient can remain indefinitely in the indeterminate form (11), or the chronic Chagas ' disease can manifests Address for correspondence