title: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus types I and II infections in a cohort of patients with neurological disorders in Belém, Pará, Brazil.
abstract: Serum- and/or- cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples obtained from 190 patients suffering from chronic, progressive neurological disease were screened for the presence of human T-cell lymphotropic viruses type I (HTLV-I) and type II (HTLV-II) antibodies over a six-year period (1996 to 2001) in Belém, Pará, Brazil. Patients were of both sexes (male subjects, 52%) with ages ranging from 2 to 79 years (mean, 35.9). Overall, 15 (7.9%) subjects - of whom 12 (80%) were female adults - reacted HTLV-I/II-seropositive when screened by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Serum samples from 14 of these patients were also analyzed using a recombinant Western blot (WB) assay that yielded HTLV-I-, HTLV-II-, and HTLV-I/II- reactivities for 10 (71.4%), 3 (21.4%) and 1 (7.2%) of them, respectively. The yearly rates of HTLV-I/II antibodies ranged from 2.6% (2001) to 21.7% (2000), with progressively increasing seropositivities from 1998 to 2000. Altogether, walking difficulty (n = 5 subjects), spasticity (n = 4) and leg weakness (n = 3) accounted for 80% of symptoms recorded among the 15 patients whose sera had antibodies to HTLV-I/II as detected by ELISA. These findings provide evidence that both HTLV-I and HTLV-II play a role in the development of chronic myelopathy in Belém, Pará, Northern Brazil.
authors.affiliation: Seção de Virologia, Instituto Evandro Chagas, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde, Ministério da Saúde, Belém, Pará, Brasil.
authors.forename: Olinda
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Macêdo
authors.forename: Telma V
authors.initials: TV
authors.lastname: Ribeiro-Lima
authors.forename: Adriana de O
authors.initials: Ade O
authors.lastname: Linhares
authors.forename: Antônio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Moura
authors.forename: Maria de Lourdes C
authors.initials: Mde L
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.forename: Alexandre C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Linhares
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D015490:HTLV-I Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015491:HTLV-II Infections / Q000175:diagnosis*; D015368:Human T-lymphotropic virus 1 / Q000276:immunology; D015367:Human T-lymphotropic virus 2 / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000821:virology*; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000821:virology*