OCULAR MANIFESTATIONS IN PATIENTS WITH HT LV-I-ASSOCIATED MYELOPATHY - A CLINICAL-STUDY OF 30 CASES

We present the results of ophthalmologic examinations of a consecutive series of 30 patients with HTLV-I associated myelopathy. This is the first ophthalmologic prospective study reported outside the Japanese e ndemic area. Twenty-one of the patients (70 %) had kerato-conjunctivit is sicca in addition to accessory salivary gland lymphocytary infiltra tion in 7. Two cases of uveo-papillitis, 1 case of cotton-wool spots a nd 3 cases of retinochoroidal degeneration were also observed. Moreove r, an aliquot of the aqueous humour was collected from the anterior ch amber in 5 patients and showed high titer of HTLV-I antibodies for the 2 patients with uveo-papillitis. We propose different hypotheses to e xplain the physiopathologic characteristics of these features.