Fig. 3
Pathways of Increased Ischemic Stroke Risk in Chagas Disease (CD) Patients due to T. cruzi infection. The figure delineates two main mechanisms: structural cardiac alterations by T. cruzi leading to cardioembolic events, and a T. cruzi-triggered immune response causing chronic inflammation that promotes atherosclerosis. Guedes et al. identified an immune imbalance in CD patients—lower regulatory cytokines (GATA-3, FoxP3, IL-10) and higher pro-inflammatory markers (IFN-γ, TNF-α, iNOS)—which correlates with an increased stroke risk and mortality. This immune dysregulation accelerates atherosclerosis, linking CD with ischemic stroke, further evidenced by studies showing a relationship between altered cytokine levels and atherosclerosis progression in CD [34]