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A Clinical, Serologic, and Immunovirologic Study of Ten Patients in France

Olivier Gout, MD; Antoine Gessain, MD; Francis Bolgert, MD; Fortuna Saal, MD; Elisabeth Tournier-Lasserve, MD; Jacqueline Lasneret, MD; Christiane Caudie, MD; Pascal Brunet, MD; Guy De-Thé, MD, PhD; François Lhermitte, MD; Olivier Lyon-Caen, MD

Arch Neurol. 1989;46(3):255-260.

Abstract
• Chronic myelopathy associated with human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLVI) has been described in HTLV-I endemic areas. In Paris, 167 neurologic patients were screened for HTLV-I by enzymelinked immunosorbent, indirect immunofluorescent, and Western blot assays. Ten of the 11 patients with positive results had a chronic spastic paraparesis with IgG oligoclonal bands and elevated HTLV-I antibody index. Two of them had been born and were living in France, without HTLV-I risk factors. Evoked potentials were abnormal in the nine tested patients and brain magnetic resonance images in three of seven patients. No improvement was observed with steroid treatment. A retrovirus similar to HTLV-I was isolated in five cases at different periods of the disease. Hypotheses of limited endemic areas in western countries are discussed. Early presence and persistence of HTLV-I suggest that it is the etiologic agent.

Author Affiliations
From the Neurology and Neuropsychology Clinic (Drs Gout, Tournier-Lasserve, Lhermitte, and Lyon-Caen), and the Clinic for Nervous System Diseases (Drs Bolgert and Brunet), Salpétrière Hospital, and the Laboratory of Leukemia Virology, Saint-Louis Hospital (Drs Gessain, Saal, and Lasneret), Paris; the Laboratory of Epidemiology and Immunovirology of Tumors, Faculty of Medicine Alexis Carrel (Drs Gessain and De-Thé), and the Laboratory of Immunobiology, Neurological Hospital (Dr Caudie), Lyon, France. Dr Gessain is a fellow of the Association for Cancer Research.

Footnotes
Accepted for publication July 7, 1988.

Reprint requests to Clinique de Neurologie et de Neuropsychologie, Hôpital de la Salpétrière, 47 blvd de l'Hôpital, 75650 Paris Cedex 13, France (Dr Lyon-Caen).

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Chronic Myelopathy Associated with Human T-Lymphotropic Virus Type I (HTLV-I)
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ABSTRACT