title: HTLV-I-associated myelopathy associated with multi-organ inflammatory disease: a case report.
abstract: We report a 73-year-old man with human T-lymphotropic virus type I (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy (HAM) complicated with multi-organ inflammatory disease, including Sjögren's syndrome, interstitial cystitis, and uveitis. The presence of HTLV-I proviral DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), cerebrospinal fluid, salivary gland, mucosa of urinary bladder, and aqueous humor was confirmed by polymerase chain reaction using HTLV-I pX region primer. Western blot analysis revealed the presence of anti-HTLV-I antibodies in serum, CSF, saliva, and urine, suggesting replication of HTLV-I in each tissue. A high load of HTLV-I proviral DNA (20 copies out of 100 PBMC) was present, associated with increased spontaneous proliferation of peripheral blood lymphocytes (24,747 cpm). Our results suggest that the high load of HTLV-I in patients with HAM may potentially induce systemic inflammation in several organs.
authors.affiliation: The First Department of Internal Medicine, Nagasaki University School of Medicine, Japan.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Furuya
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shirabe
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nomata
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kitaoka
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kohno
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yoshimura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eguchi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018856:Cystitis, Interstitial / Q000150:complications*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000150:complications*; D012859:Sjogren's Syndrome / Q000150:complications*; D014605:Uveitis / Q000150:complications*