Pancarditis affecting the conducting system and all valves in human African trypanosomiasis

Abstract

This paper describes the pathological features of 10 cases of human African trypanosomiasis occurring in Uganda over an 8-year period. Three cases were clinically proved, and in all 10 cases chronic meningoencephalitis and myocarditis were present. There was chronic pancarditis in 6 cases, and in 3 of these there was a generalized focal valvulitis and in 2 lesions of the conducting system. Previous descriptions of carditis in human African trypanosomiasis are briefly reviewed, and the present findings are compared with some cardiomyopathies as well as American human and experimental trypanosomiasis.