Discrepancy, coincidence or evidence in chronic idiopathic spastic paraparesis throughout the world: a meta-analysis on 2811 patients

• Autor(a) principal: Leon-S,Fidias E.
• Data de Publicação: 1997
• Outros Autores: Costa,Carlos Mauricio de Castro, Gaffga,Nicholas
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Arquivos de neuro-psiquiatria (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0004-282X1997000400002
• topic: HTLV-I; spastic paraparesis; meta-analysis; retrovirus; environmental cofactors

HTLV-I has been associated with a chronic idiopatic spastic paraparesis (CHISPA) in man; however, a complete understanding of this association is still debated. We selected the most comprehensible papers on this topic between 1985 and 1996, and found that 1261 out of 2811 patients (44.9%) reported, throughout the world, were HTLV-I positive. The mean age was 39.5 years and there was a female predominance of 1.9:1. These results do not exclude the causality of HTLV-I as a germen associated to CHISPA; however, other causes (e.g., toxic, immunosuppressors) must be considered as participating in the multistep neurodegeneration observed in CHISPA throughout the world.