Performance of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases disability scale in HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis.

HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is a chronic disabling disease. However, there is a lack of an adequate and specific health measurement instrument validated and with good performance to assess their degree of physical disability. This led us to carry out this study and to evaluate the performance of Fiocruz's National Institute of Infectious Diseases (IDS) disability scale, a specific instrument for HAM/TSP.

Isolated intracranial hypertension associated with COVID-19.

Background: Headache is a frequent complaint in COVID-19 patients. However, no detailed information on headache characteristics is provided in these reports. Our objective is to describe the characteristics of headache and the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) profile in COVID-19 patients, highlighting the cases of isolated intracranial hypertension.

SARS-CoV-2: Should We Be Concerned about the Nervous System?

The COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be an enormous challenge to the health of the world population with tremendous consequences for the world economy. New knowledge about COVID-19 is being acquired continuously. Although the main manifestation of COVID-19 is SARS, dysfunction in other organs has been described in the last months.

Neurological Aspects of HIV-1/HTLV-1 and HIV-1/HTLV-2 Coinfection.

Simultaneous infection by human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) and human T-lymphotropic viruses (HTLV) are not uncommon since they have similar means of transmission and are simultaneously endemic in many populations. Besides causing severe immune dysfunction, these viruses are neuropathogenic and can cause neurological diseases through direct and indirect mechanisms. Many pieces of evidence at present show that coinfection may alter the natural history of general and, more specifically, neurological disorders through different mechanisms.

Update on Neurological Manifestations of HTLV-1 Infection.

The human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus that infects 10-20 million persons around the world. Initially associated with the hematological malignancy adult T cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL), HTLV-1 is also the cause of a chronic progressive myelopathy named "HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis" (HAM/TSP). HAM/TSP arises as the tip of the iceberg of an assortment of neurological syndromes triggered by the virus such as inflammatory myopathies, polyneuropathies, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)-like syndromes, dysautonomia, and cognitive impairment.

Prionic diseases.

Prion diseases are neurodegenerative illnesses due to the accumulation of small infectious pathogens containing protein but apparently lacking nucleic acid, which have long incubation periods and progress inexorably once clinical symptoms appear. Prions are uniquely resistant to a number of normal decontaminating procedures. The prionopathies [Kuru, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) and its variants, Gerstmann-Sträussler-Scheinker (GSS) syndrome and fatal familial insomnia (FFI)] result from accumulation of abnormal isoforms of the prion protein in the brains of normal animals on both neuronal and non-neuronal cells.

High frequencies of functionally competent circulating Tax-specific CD8+ T cells in human T lymphotropic virus type 2 infection.

Human T lymphotropic virus type 2 (HTLV-2) is characterized by a clinically asymptomatic persistent infection in the vast majority of infected individuals. In this study, we have characterized for the first time ex vivo specific CTL responses against the HTLV-2 Tax protein. We could detect CTL responses only against a single HLA-A*0201-restricted Tax2 epitope, comprising residues 11-19 (LLYGYPVYV), among three alleles screened.

Peripheral neuropathy in HTLV-I infected individuals without tropical spastic paraparesis/HTLV-I-associated myelopathy.

Tropical spastic paraparesis/ HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (TSP/HAM) is the classical neurological manifestation of HTLV-I. Only a few studies have described isolated peripheral neuropathy (PN) among HTLV-I infected individuals. 335 infected individuals without TSP/HAM were evaluated for the presence of PN and 45 of them showed evidences of peripheral nervous system involvement.

Neurological manifestations in HTLV-I-infected blood donors.

The human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I) causes a neurological disease known as HTLV-I-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) in a minority of infected individuals. Although other neurological outcomes have been described their prevalence is presently unknown. To evaluate the frequency and characteristics of neurological involvement in a population of HTLV-I-infected blood donors we investigated 196 HTLV-I positive and 196 negative blood donors from a blood center of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Dermatological findings of human T lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis.

Dermatological findings for patients with human T lymphotropic virus type 1(HTLV-I)-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) were investigated and were compared with dermatological findings for a control group. Only xerosis, cutaneous candidiasis, and palmar erythema were significantly associated with HAM/TSP. Histopathological patterns of cutaneous lymphoma were seen in 25% of 32 patients who underwent biopsy, and, thus, the cutaneous alterations in HAM/TSP can be classified into nonspecific lesions, infectious lesions, immune-inflammatory-mediated lesions, and premalignant or malignant lesions.