Heparin treatment in patients with human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy: a preliminary study.
Ten patients with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM) were treated in an uncontrolled preliminary trial of heparin. In 7 patients, motor dysfunction improved substantially and the effect continued for more than a month after the discontinuation of therapy. Sensory and urinary disturbances also improved in 3 of 4 and in 2 of 10 patients, respectively. Heparin did not alter the subsets of peripheral blood lymphocytes nor the titers of anti-HTLV-I antibodies in serum and cerebrospinal fluid. Spontaneous proliferation of peripheral blood lymphocytes, however, was depressed significantly (P < 0.05) in all cases. Heparin therapy has some advantages in cost, ease of administration and fewer side effects compared to other therapies such as plasmapheresis and interferon-alpha. We conclude that heparin can be administered safely to HAM, and that a double-blind placebo-controlled trial is warranted to determine its efficacy in HAM.
Nagasato
K
K
First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan.
Nakamura
T
T
Ichinose
K
K
Nishiura
Y
Y
Ohishi
K
K
Shibayama
K
K
Watanabe
H
H
Tsujihata
M
M
Nagataki
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001777:Blood Coagulation / Q000187:drug effects; D002455:Cell Division / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006493:Heparin / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D016131:Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000187:drug effects / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000276:immunology
D006493:Heparin