title: [Therapeutic effect of lymphocytapheresis on patients with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM)].
abstract: Lymphocytapheresis (LCP) was performed in 7 patients (1 male and 6 females) with HAM to delete lymphocytes from their peripheral blood, resulting in an improvement of motor disability in 6 of 7 patients with HAM. The therapeutic effect appeared within one day after first LCP, and reached maximum in 2 or 3 sessions of LCP. The side effects were only dysesthesia in 5 patients during LCP and mild leukopenia in a patient after LCP. Both of them were mild and transient. The effect of LCP continued for two to five months in 6 patients, the remaining one deteriorated in a month. In the study of T cell subsets of peripheral blood lymphocytes by flowcytometry, the CD4/8 ratio and the cell counts of CD4+ DR+, CD8+ DR+ and IL-2R positive cells were gradually decreased by LCP. These results suggest that LCP is one of the effective therapies for HAM and peripheral blood lymphocytes implicate in the pathogenesis of HAM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, National Okinawa Hospital.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kubota
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nakagawa
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Osame
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007937:Leukapheresis; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000276:immunology / Q000628:therapy*; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets