The authors would also like to stress the limitations of not including treatment factors in the analysis as well as the variable time between biomarker and angiography measurements in the study population. Patients were frequently under the influence of drugs, both lipid-lowering and anti-diabetic. Thus, particularly in what concerns the LDL data, these results must be viewed with great caution. Several parameters were under study, and so a cautionary note on the findings in the background of tests on multiple parameters is warranted. Given these limitations,Y-27632 dihydrochloride the present findings should be, preferably, confirmed by other studies. In conclusion, among several systemic parameters studied, plasma glucose was found to be correlated to coronary artery atherosclerosis lesions. The illness is characterized by an acute phase with patent parasitemia and non-specific symptoms, followed by a life-long chronic phase with subpatent parasitemia and scarce tissue parasitism. In the symptomatic phase, the heart is primarily affected, developing hypertrophy and dilatation,Z-VAD-FMK in addition to the digestive tract – predominantly the esophagus and large intestine – with the appearance of megaviscera. At present, the available therapy is mainly successful during the acute phase of the disease but with systemic side effects. Application of this therapy to treat the chronic phase of the disease – when most patients are diagnosed – is still controversial. T. cruzi has a complex life cycle characterized by several forms in vertebrate and invertebrate hosts. In the invertebrate host, the parasite replicates as a non-infective form called epimastigote, which can differentiate into a metacyclic trypomas-tigote, an infectious but non-replicative form. This process is called metacyclogenesis. When these forms infect a vertebrate host, they invade host cells and differentiate into amastigotes, which then divide in the cell cytoplasm and differentiate again into trypomastigotes, passing through a transient epimastigote-like stage termed the intracellular epimastigote. The main transmission route of the parasite is via insect vector bites on any region of the host skin.