Article Text
Abstract
Background Human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) carriers may develop severe systemic diseases, such as adult T cell leukaemia (ATL) or HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP). This study aims to investigate systemic diseases of HTLV-1 carriers who had developed HTLV-1-associated uveitis (HAU).
Methods We investigated the occurrence of systemic diseases in 200 patients with HAU by performing a retrospective investigation of their medical records and examining the results of a postal survey.
Results The mean age of HAU onset was 49 years, and the total person-years from HAU onset was 1627. There were two cases of ATL. Of these, one was diagnosed with smouldering ATL at the time of HAU onset and the other developed acute-type ATL 4 years after HAU onset. There were 26 cases of HAM/TSP; of these, HAM/TSP occurred first in 13 cases and HAU occurred first in 11 cases. The interval between the onset of HAM/TSP and HAU ranged from 6 months to 6 years, with no significant difference observed based on whether HAM/TSP or HAU occurred first. Hyperthyroidism was noted in 45 cases and preceded onset in all cases. HAU onset occurred after starting thiamazole treatment, and in two cases HAU recurred each time thiamazole treatment was restarted.
Conclusion HTLV-1 carriers with HAU may develop HAM/TSP more frequently than general carriers. HTLV-1 carriers undergoing treatment for hyperthyroidism may be prone to developing HAU.
- Inflammation
- Infection
- Epidemiology
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Footnotes
Contributors Design of the work: KN. Data collection: KN and NA. Data analysis and interpretation: KN. Drafting the article: KN. Critical revision of the article: TS. Final approval of the version to be published: KN, NA and TS.
Funding This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 16K11268 and a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent Obtained.
Ethics approval The Institutional Review Board of Kagoshima University Hospital.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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