Lower Prevalence and Severity of Coronary Atherosclerosis in Chronic Chagas' Disease by Coronary Computed Tomography Angiography.

Background: In Chagas' disease endemic regions, there has been for many years a recurrent empirical observation that coronary artery disease (CAD) is uncommon in patients with Chagas' disease. Previous pathological and invasive coronary angiography studies led to controversial results.

Objective: We sought to investigate whether CAD is less prevalent and less severe in patients with chronic Chagas' disease when compared with a matched population with a similar CAD risk profile.