This finding is consistent with the clinical severity of our patients, for they had mild CCHD-SAH (only a small decrease in the LVEF), as well as with previous studies carried out in patients with CCHD in which MMP-9 serum levels were higher than MMP-2 serum levels, and in non-Chagas disease patients with SAH-induced left ventricular hypertrophy [27, 28]. This evidence concerns the gene MMP9 and left ventricular hypertrophy.