Pain in tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I associated myelopathy patients.
OBJECTIVE
Tropical Spastic Paraparesis/HTLV-I Associated Myelopathy (TSP/HAM) is a chronic myelopathy, and pain has been mentioned as a frequent sensory symptom in this condition. The authors aimed at analyzing this symptom in a TSP/HAM patients series.


METHODS
For this, 46 patients were analyzed considering demographic and clinical characteristics and complaint of pain as to verbal description, time of onset and classification, correlated with the degree of motor disability and type of pain.


RESULTS
Among the 46 TSP/HAM patients, 28 (60.8%) complained of pain, predominant in the early phase of the disease. Most of the patients exhibited neuropathic characteristics of pain, correlated with increased motor disability.


CONCLUSIONS
Pain in TSP/HAM patients is a frequent and early symptom, and the neuropathic type is predominant (57.1%) and paralleled with increased incapacitation. The pathogenic involvement of cytokines may possibly be involved in the meaning of this symptom in this condition.
Departamento de Fisiologia e Farmacologia, Instituto de Biomedicina, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Fortaleza, CE, Brazil. mcastro@ufc.br
Carlos Maurício de
CM
Castro-Costa
Abelardo de Queiroz Campos
Ade Q
Araújo
Carlos C
CC
Câmara
Ayrton S
AS
Ferreira
Terezinha de Jesus T
Tde J
Santos
Samuel Bovy
SB
de Castro-Costa
Raimundo Neudson M
RN
Alcântara
Graham P
GP
Taylor
D015331:Cohort Studies; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010146:Pain / Q000145:classification / Q000209:etiology*; D015493:Paraparesis, Tropical Spastic / Q000150:complications*