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Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry logoLink to Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry
. 1993 Sep;56(9):1004–1007. doi: 10.1136/jnnp.56.9.1004

Neuropathological studies of the spinal cord in early stage HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM).

A Yoshioka 1, G Hirose 1, Y Ueda 1, Y Nishimura 1, K Sakai 1
PMCID: PMC489738  PMID: 8410023

Abstract

Necropsy findings for a patient with HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM) of 9 months clinical duration are reported. Loss of myelin sheaths and axons together with perivascular lymphocytic infiltration was seen in the lateral and posterior columns of the spinal cord from the cervical to the lumbar region where vacuolar changes caused by the splitting of myelin sheaths were prominent. Immunohistochemical analyses revealed CD8+ cytotoxic T cell infiltration predominated in the absence of HTLV-I core protein antigen bearing-cells in the brain and spinal cord. Myelin sheath damage and predominant CD8+ cytotoxic T cell infiltration are thought to be the main neuropathological findings in the spinal cord in early stage HAM.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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