Asymptomatic primary biliary cirrhosis in HTLV-I-associated myelopathy.
A 54-yr-old woman was admitted for complaints of slowly progressive gait and bladder disturbance, and HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM/TSP) was diagnosed by positive antibodies to HTLV-I, both in her serum and cerebrospinal fluid. In the course of a diagnostic evaluation, she was found to have asymptomatic primary biliary cirrhosis. In immunohistochemistry, a fair number of her hepatocyte nuclei stained strongly positive for HTLV-I core protein, suggesting that HTLV-I may infect hepatocytes. The present case demonstrates that the spectrum of HTLV-I infection may be broad, and suggests the relationship between HTLV-I-associated myelopathy and primary biliary cirrhosis by autoimmune process.
Ijichi
T
T
Department of Neurology and Gerontology, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Japan.
Miyata
K
K
Mori
S
S
Nakajima
K
K
Okanoue
T
T
Tsuchihashi
Y
Y
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology; D008105:Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology