Congenital Trypanosoma cruzi infection. Efficacy of its monitoring in an urban reference health center in a non-endemic area of Argentina.

Congenital transmission (CT) has acquired relevance in Chagas disease (CHD). A cohort of pregnant CHD women (4,355) and their babies were studied in the period 1994-2004. Children were excluded when they had received blood transfusions, or were born or had been in endemic areas; CT rate was 6.

Soluble tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptors (sTNF-R1 and -R2) in pregnant women chronically infected with Trypanosoma cruzi and their children.

Most congenital transmissions of Trypanosoma cruzi are not detected. As the levels of mediators regulating the immune response might be different in the absence or in the presence of transmission, we explored the levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) and soluble TNF receptors TNF-R1 and -R2 in T. cruzi-infected pregnant women and the neonates.