Discrepancy, coincidence or evidence in chronic idiopathic spastic paraparesis throughout the world: a meta-analysis on 2811 patients

HTLV-I has been associated with a chronic idiopatic spastic paraparesis (CHISPA) in man; however, a complete undestanding of this association is still debated. We selected the most comprehensible papers on this topic between 1985 and 1996, and found that 1261 out of 2811 patients (44.9 percent) reported, throughout the world, were HTLV-I positive. The mean age was 39.5 years and there was a female predominance of 1.9:1. These results do not exclude the causality of HTLV-I as a germen associated to CHISPA; however, other causes) e.g., toxic, immunosuppressors) must be considered as participating in the multistep neurodegeneration observed in CHISPA throughout the world.