POLYARTHRITIS IN HTLV-1-INFECTED PATIENTS - A REVIEW OF 17 CASES

A retrospective study was conducted in Martinique to identify patients with polyarthritis and positive serologic tests for the human T-cell lymphotropic virus Type I (HTLV-1). Patients with metabolic or bacteri al causes of polyarthritis were excluded, We found 17 cases of HTLV-1- positive polyarthritis (6.7% of the total of polyarthritis patients fo llowed in our department); there were 14 females and three males, and all the patients were West-Indian blacks, Mean age at diagnosis was 50 years, Five patients also had tropical spastic paraparesis, The polya rthritis was the inaugural manifestation of T-cell leukemia in one pat ient, Four patients had received blood transfusions, Fever, myalgia, a nd/or skin lesions were present at onset of the polyarthritis in seven cases, All 17 patients had peripheral, bilateral, symmetric polyarthr itis; the most commonly involved sites were the hands (17/17) and knee s (14/17), Three patients had rheumatoid factor and five had antinucle ar antibody, Ten patients met at least four American Rheumatism Associ ation criteria for rheumatoid arthritis; they accounted for 6.7% (10/1 50) of all polyarthritis patients managed in the same hospital departm ent during the same period, We compared these ten patients with 20 HTL V-1-negative rheumatoid arthritis patients matched on gender, ethnic o rigin, and disease duration, There were no significant differences bet ween the two groups for any of the parameters studied,