Acute human T-lymphotropic virus type 1-associated myelopathy: a clinicopathologic study.

BACKGROUND: Recently, acute human T-lymphotropic virus type 1-associated myelopathy (HAM) was reported clinically without pathologic information. We report an autopsy case of acute HAM. OBJECTIVE: To report the case of a 52-year-old man with acute-onset gait disturbance followed by rapidly progressive paraplegia, who died 9 months later. RESULTS: The postmortem study showed swelling of the thoracic spinal cord. Histologically, there was inflammation and vacuolation in the white matter. CONCLUSION: We propose that these pathologic findings, mimicking tropical spastic paraparesis, may represent the characteristic pathologic features of acute HAM.