NEUROMYOSITIS - 4 NEW CASES - ASSOCIATION WITH HTLV-I INFECTION IN ONE CASE

Neuromyositis is a very rare type of polymyositis where, beside the us ual muscular manifestations, there are signs of peripheral neuropathy which can be found at clinical, electromyographic and/or pathological examination. We have seen between 1983 and 1990 four cases of neuromyo sitis. The neurological disorder was an axonopathy in two cases which is usual in neuromyositis; in the other two cases, there was a polyrad iculoneuritis which seems to be very rare in this syndrome. In the fou r patients the disease was particularly severe and unresponsive to tre atment. One of our patients had HTLV-I infection diagnosed by polymera se chain reaction amplification and in situ hybridation, while the ser ological test was negative. To our knowledge only three cases of HTLV- I associated neuromyositis have been reported in the literature.