Revista de la Facultad de Medicina (Apr 1963)
Nuevos aspectos del método de xenodiagnóstico con Rhodnius prolixus
Abstract
The efficiency of Xenodiagnostico is noted, as a biological method of making an etiological diagnosis of Chagas disease, It is pointed out that the fourth and fifth nymph stages are the most appropriate, not only because of the great amount of blood which they ingurgitate to repletion, but also because of the facility of the routine operations without the necessity of extraeting and placing the specimens in receptacles of superficial cleanliness in order to separate the full specimens from the empty ones. The advantages of a partial diet of blood is indicated in order to prevent the nymphs from becoming adults. The technique used in the study of spontaneous dejection in Rhodnius prolixus experimentally infected is described and the advantages noted. The article describes an original method "Dejectograma" of recording the total digestion of blood during one month in normal and infected fifth stage nymphs. The recording apparatus is an adapted thermograph which we call a "Dejectografo". Some observations are made concerning the discovery of evolved forms of S. cruzi, in several spontaneous dejections and the survival of metacyclic forms in hyaline for 30 hours between the slide and cover slide at a temperature of 150 C. Attention is called to the intermission of ejection of evolved forms of S. cruzi, with the conclusion that in order to avoid false negative results, dissection of the digestive tracts is necessary in these cases. The possibility of complete studies is set forth, aided by the techniques explained, and along the lines of the few observations made from pilot experiments.
