Dermatologic Manifestations in Htlv-1-Associated Myelopathy/Tropical Spastic Paraparesis

The human t cell lymphotropic virus type-1 (htlv-1) is associated with adult t cell leukemia/lymphoma (atl) and other disorders, including a slowly progressive demyelinating paraparesis, known as htlv-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (ham/tsp). dermatologic manifestations are common in patients infected with htlv-1 infection. in this study, we evaluated the dermatologic lesions associated with ham/tsp patients in mashhad, iran. dermatological findings of 37 patients with ham/tsp were investigated and compared with those of an htlv-1 negative control group. a cutaneous biopsy was performed as needed, and the results were statistically analyzed. results of the present study showed that 34 cases with ham/tsp (91.9%) and 24 cases in the control group (64.9%) had at least one skin lesion or history of skin lesion before (p=0.010). xerosis was found in 22 persons (59.5%) in the case group and 4 persons in the control group (10.8%) (p=0.000). only xerosis was significantly associated with ham/tsp. skin manifestations were quite frequent in patients with ham/tsp. xerosis was significantly associated with ham/tsp.