This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Gustavo C. Román, MD

Arch Neurol. 1987;44(6):659-663.

Abstract
• Human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I), the causative agent of adult Tcell leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (ATLL)—or a cross-reacting retrovirus— has been associated with tropical spastic paraparesis in Martinique, Jamaica, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, the Seychelles, and probably also in Zaire. The Caribbean basin and sub-Saharan Africa are endemic for ATLL. A similar etiology has been invoked in a chronic spastic myelopathy occurring in areas of high ATLL endemicity in Japan. An HTLV-I viral antigen has been demonstrated in cerebrospinal fluid lymphocytes of a Japanese patient with myelopathy. Human T-lymphotropic virus type I antibodies have occurred in patients in Florida and Japan (areas of HTLV-I endemicity) who were diagnosed as having clinically definite multiple sclerosis (MS), but not in patients with MS in other parts of the world. Human T-lymphotropic virus type I, like some lentiviruses—visna and human immunodeficiency virus, in particular— may be both lymphotropic and neurotropic. Tropical spastic paraparesis, the Japanese myelopathy, and, perhaps, an MS-like neurologic syndrome, may represent clinical variants of the same disease, a retroviral myelopathy.

Author Affiliations
From the Department of Neurology, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, Lubbock.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication Jan 9, 1987.

Reprint requests to Department of Neurology, Room 4A124, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, Lubbock, TX 79430 (Dr Román).

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type I and Neurologic Disease in Panama, 1985 and 1986
Gracia et al.
Arch Neurol 1990;47:634-639.
ABSTRACT  

Electroencephalographic Abnormalities in Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type I-Associated Myelopathy
Yonenaga et al.
Arch Neurol 1989;46:513-516.
ABSTRACT  

Retrovirus-Mediated Myelopathies: Are These Autoimmune Disorders Induced by Altered Antigens?
Gore et al.
Arch Neurol 1988;45:601-602.
ABSTRACT  

Seroprevalence and epidemiological correlates of HTLV-I infection in U.S. blood donors
Williams et al.
Science 1988;240:643-646.
ABSTRACT  

Tropical Spastic Paraparesis: Lack of Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type I Antibodies in Blood Donors From Bogota, Colombia
Roman et al.
Arch Neurol 1988;45:244-245.
ABSTRACT  

The brain in AIDS: central nervous system HIV-1 infection and AIDS dementia complex
Price et al.
Science 1988;239:586-592.
ABSTRACT