Publications by authors named "L M Varrica"
Article Synopsis
- The study focused on comparing the enteric nervous systems in patients with chagas disease-related megacolon, idiopathic megacolon, and a control group.
- A total of 12 chagasic megacolon patients, 9 idiopathic megacolon patients, and 10 control patients were examined through surgical specimens for differences in nerve and cell types.
- Findings revealed significant reductions in enteric neurons and glial cells in chagasic patients, along with increased fibrosis and mild lymphocyte infiltration, indicating notable abnormalities in their enteric nervous systems compared to both idiopathic and control patients.
Chagas' disease and idiopathic achalasia have similar esophageal manifestations such as absent or incomplete lower esophageal sphincter relaxation and aperistalsis in the esophageal body (alterations seen mainly in the distal esophageal body). Our aim in this paper was to study the response of the proximal esophageal body to wet swallows in patients with Chagas' disease and patients with idiopathic achalasia. We retrospectively analyzed the time interval between the onset of the pharyngeal contractions 1 cm proximal to the upper esophageal sphincter, as well as 5 cm distal to the pharyngeal measurement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground & Aims: Autoantibodies against M(2)-muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (M(2) mAChR) have been reported in patients with chronic Chagas' disease who have cardiac dysautonomia. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of such antibodies in chronic chagasic and non-chagasic patients with esophageal achalasia and their ability to activate M(2) mAChR in the isolated esophagus.
Methods: Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to detect serum immunoglobulin (Ig) G antibodies against a synthetic 24-mer peptide corresponding to the second extracellular loop of human M(2) mAChR.