Patients infected by Trypanosoma cruzi are typically diagnosed by detecting specific antibodies in serological assays. Persistence of the parasitic infection increases the risk of morbidity and mortality. There are indications that anti-parasitic therapies help to reduce these risks when comparing treated and untreated populations. However, at present, treatment efficacy cannot be properly evaluated on an individual patient basis by available laboratory methods. To monitor parasite clearance, it is essential to change the paradigm of serological methods: analyzing the broad spectrum of antibody diversity is more informative about clinical status than conventional serology tests designed merely for global detection of antibodies.

中文翻译：

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克氏锥虫感染患者未满足的医疗需求：监测疾病状态。

通常通过在血清学检测中检测特异性抗体来诊断克氏锥虫感染的患者。寄生虫感染的持续存在会增加发病和死亡的风险。有迹象表明，在比较治疗人群和未治疗人群时，抗寄生虫疗法有助于降低这些风险。但是，目前，尚不能通过可用的实验室方法在每个患者的基础上正确评估治疗效果。要监测寄生虫清除率，必须改变血清学方法的范式：与仅用于抗体整体检测的常规血清学检测相比，分析广谱的抗体多样性对临床状况更为有益。