For a study, researchers assessed that most people with HTLV-1 infection experience joint pain with little or no synovitis. Increased proinflammatory cytokines were seen in the patients when the virus infects their CD4+ and CD8+ positive cells, macrophages, and b cells.  However, no conclusive evidence had been found linking HTLV-1 infection with autoimmune disease, and the clinical features of HTLV-1-associated arthropathy had not been defined.  The purpose of this study was to describe the clinical and radiological features of her HTLV-1-infected patient with joint pain.  A cross-sectional study of HTLV-1 infected subjects with bilateral chronic joint pain and seronegative controls with osteoarthritis was performed.  All participants had conventional radiographs of the hips, knees, and ankles.  The study enrolled 81 HTLV-1 infected patients and 30 osteoarthritis patients.  Polyarticular and symmetric arthritis predominated in his HTLV-1-positive group (54%), whereas oligoarticular and asymmetric arthritis (44%) occurred more frequently in the controlled group (P<0.05).  The frequency of endophytes in HTLV-1 infected patients (90%) was higher than in controls (73%) (P<0.05).  Radiographic features were similar in HTLV-1 carriers and patients with probable or definite myelopathy associated with HTLV-1.  The presence of attached spines or osteophytes without joint space reduction was observed only in HTLV-1-infected individuals (P<0.001).  Magnetic resonance imaging of the ankles of 5 HTLV-1-infected patients and 5 controls showed a higher frequency of enthesitis, bursitis, and osteitis in the HTLV-1-infected group. HTLV-1-associated arthropathy was clinically characterised by symmetric polyarthralgia and the predominant radiographic findings were the presence of attached spines and joint space narrowing in the absence of osteophytes

Source: advancesinrheumatology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s42358-022-00259-y

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