Abstract INTRODUCTION: Patients with Chagas disease (CD), caused by Trypanosoma cruzi, present a higher risk of developing other chronic diseases, which may contribute to CD severity. Since CD is underreported in the southern state of Paraná, Brazil, we aimed to characterize clinical and epidemiological aspects of individuals chronically infected with T. cruzi in Southern Brazil. METHODS: A community hospital-based study was performed, recording clinical/demographic characteristics of 237 patients with CD from Southern Brazil. To estimate the association between different forms of CD and sociodemographic and clinical variables, multiple logistic regression models were built using the Akaike information criterion. RESULTS: Mean age was 57.5 years and 59% were females. Most patients’ (60%) place of origin/birth was within Paraná and they were admitted to the CD outpatient clinic after presenting with cardiac/digestive symptoms (64%). The predominant form of CD was cardiac (53%), followed by indeterminate (36%), and digestive (11%). The main electrocardiographic changes were in the right bundle branch block (39%) and left anterior fascicular block (32%). The average number of comorbidities per patient was 3.9±2.3; systemic arterial hypertension was most common (64%), followed by dyslipidemia (34%) and diabetes (19%); overlapping comorbidities were counted separately. Male sex was associated with symptomatic cardiac CD (OR=2.92; 95%CI: 1.05-8.12; p=0.040). CONCLUSIONS: This study provided greater understanding of the distribution and clinical profile of CD patients in Southern Brazil, indicating a high prevalence of comorbidities among these patients who are a vulnerable group due to advanced age and substantial risk of morbidity.

Para verificar a dinâmica da resistência aos antimicrobianos em uma propriedade rural no município de Santa Maria da Boa Vista, PE, foram avaliados 14 isolados de Staphylococcus epidermidis de caprinos com mastite subclínica. O perfil de resistência aos antimicrobianos foi determinado pelo teste de difusão em disco. A genotipificação foi realizada empregando o marcador REP (Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic) - PCR, utilizando o primer RW3A, enquanto os graus de similaridade e o fenograma de agrupamento foram estabelecidos por meio do coeficiente de Sorensen-Dice (SD) do algoritmo UPGMA, programa NTSYS-pc, o qual permitiu a identificação de 4 padrões dos 14 isolados de S. epidermidis, sendo oito no perfil A, quatro no perfil B, um no perfil C e um no perfil D. Para todos os grupos, a resistência à penicilina foi observada, enquanto que, para os grupos A e C, esta foi associada à lincomicina, no grupo B, esta foi associada à tetraciclina.

To verify the dynamics of antimicrobial resistance in a property in Santa Maria da Boa Vista city - Pernambuco were evaluated 14 Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates from goats with subclinical mastitis. The profile of antimicrobial resistance was determined by disk diffusion test. The genotyping was performed using the marker REP (Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic) - PCR, using RW3A primer, where the degrees of similarity and clustering phenogram were established by means of the Sorensen-Dice coefficient (SD) algorithm UPGMA, program NTSYS-pc, which allowed the identification of 4 patterns of 14 S. epidermidis isolates, being eight in the profile A, four in a profile B, one in profile C and one in profile D. For all groups to penicillin resistance was observed, while for groups A and C this was associated with lincomycin, for group B this was associated with tetracycline.