Balance Impairments in Patients with Human T-Cell Lymphotropic Virus Type 1 Infection

The human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is a retrovirus from the Retroviridae family that infects cluster of differentiation 4 (CD4) T-lymphocytes and stimulates their proliferation. A severe consequence of this infection can be the HTLV-1 associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), which is associated with a progressive demyelinating disease of the upper motor neurons. The HAM/TSP conditions frequently present with neurological complaints such as gait impairment, sphincter disturbances, and several sensory losses. We compared findings from the posturographic evaluation from the asymptomatic HTLV-1 infected subjects, HTLV-1 infected subjects having HAM/TSP, and control group database. A force plate was used to record the postural oscillations. Analysis of variance and multivariate linear discriminant analysis were used to compare the data obtained from the three groups of participants. In general, HAM/TSP patients had worse postural balance control than did the HTLV-1 patients and the controls (p