Trypanosoma cruzi subsp. tropism

Curtis-Robles, Rachel, Lewis, Barbara C. & Hamer, Sarah A., 2016, High Trypanosoma cruzi infection prevalence associated with minimal cardiac pathology among wild carnivores in central Texas, International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 5 (2), pp. 117-123 : 119

3.2. T. cruzi tropism in hearts and blood

In comparisons of parasite molecular detection among multiple sample types from the same individuals ( Fig. 2), across 219 individuals in which both right ventricle and apex were tested, we found that analysis of the two different tissues yielded the same result for 194 animals (88.6%), whereas the right ventricle tested positive and apex tested negative for 9 animals (4.1%) and the right ventricle tested negative and apex tested positive for 16 animals (7.3%). In 54 individuals, blood clot was also tested in addition to right ventricle and apex. We found that the blood clot tested positive when both right ventricle and apex tested positive in 7 of 8 animals (87.5%), whereas the blood clot tested positive when both right ventricle and apex tested negative in 7 of 38 animals (18.4%).