{"doi":"10.3390/pathogens13110920","title":"Radiological Changes in the Spinal Cord and Brain of Patients with HTLV-1-Associated Myelopathy/Tropical Spastic Paraparesis (HAM/TSP)","abstract":"HTLV-1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) is a chronic, progressive neurological disorder and shares many radiological and clinical features with other more prevalent myelopathies. Here, we quantified spinal cord and brain volumes in adults with HAM/TSP in comparison with healthy volunteers (HVs) and individuals diagnosed with relapsing–remitting or progressive multiple sclerosis (RRMS or P-MS). Clinical disability and MRI were assessed in 24 HVs, 43 HAM/TSP subjects, and 46 MS subjects. Spinal cord cross-sectional area (SCCSA) and brain tissue volumes were measured and compared. HAM/TSP subjects had significantly lower SCCSA corresponding to cervical levels 2 and 3 (C2–3) (54.0 ± 8 mm2), cervical levels 4 and 5 (C4–5) (57.8 ± 8 mm2), and thoracic levels 4 to 9 (T4–9) (22.7 ± 4 mm2) and significantly elevated brain white matter hyperintensity (WMH) fraction (0.004 ± 0.008) compared to the HVs (C2–3: 69.4 ± 8 mm2, C4–5: 75.1 ± 9 mm2, T4–9: 34.1 ± 4 mm2; all p < 0.0001; and WMH: 0.0005 ± 0.0007; p < 0.001). In the HAM/TSP subjects, SCCSA at all levels but not WMH showed a significant correlation with clinical disability scores. WMH in HAM/TSP subjects, therefore, may not be related to clinical disability. SCCSA in our limited RRMS cohort was higher than the HAM/TSP cohort (C2–3: 67.6 ± 8 mm2, C4–5: 72.7 ± 9 mm2, T4–9: 33.4 ± 5 mm2; all p < 0.0001) and WMH was lower than in P-MS subjects (p = 0.0067). Principal component analysis suggested that SCCSA and WMH may be used to differentiate HAM/TSP from MS. Understanding these differences msay help establish early diagnostic criteria for HAM/TSP patients.","journal":"Pathogens","year":2024,"id":481915,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9166,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2024-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":845983,"name":"Serhat V. Okar","orcid":"0000-0003-3716-2196","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247672,"name":"Tianxia Wu","orcid":"0000-0001-6888-658X","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1322268,"name":"Mallory Stack","orcid":null,"position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":698014,"name":"Yair Mina","orcid":"0000-0003-2311-6623","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":998676,"name":"María I. Gaitán","orcid":"0000-0003-4455-5641","position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":698015,"name":"Shila Azodi","orcid":"0000-0002-8884-3525","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1322269,"name":"Will Frazier","orcid":null,"position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247667,"name":"Joan Ohayon","orcid":"0000-0003-1213-5853","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230799,"name":"Irene Cortese","orcid":"0000-0001-9631-7181","position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":230800,"name":"Daniel S. Reich","orcid":"0000-0002-2628-4334","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247664,"name":"Govind Nair","orcid":"0000-0003-3725-615X","position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":247665,"name":"Steven Jacobson","orcid":"0000-0003-3127-1287","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":497905,"name":"Emily Stack","orcid":"0009-0008-0115-7321","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":36,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:07:10.067421Z","pmid":"39599472","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}