Gender and myocardial fibrosis by CMR are independent predictors of myocardial dysfunction in patients with Chagas' heart disease

LVD was present in 45.3% of patients and was more frequent in male than in female (32.9% vs. 67.1%, p<0,001). The presence of MF was greater in male than in female group (42.4% vs. 57.6%, respectively, p<0,001). Quantified MF was significantly higher in males (16.8% vs. 7.4%, p<0.001). Functional class (FC-NYHA) was also significantly greater in males (Table 1 and 2). There was a good and significant negative correlation between LVEF and MF (r=-0.69, p<0.001). A multivariate model using logistic regression showed that gender and MF are independent predictors of LVD, with an OR=6.17 for males (p=0.02) and 1.27 (p<0.001) for MF. Conclusions