Association between urinary symptoms and quality of life in HTLV-1 infected subjects without myelopathy.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relationship between urinary symptoms and quality of life of patients infected with HTLV-1. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study that enrolled individuals with HTLV-1 positive serology from February 2010 to March 2011. Participants were HTLV-1 infected subjects followed in the HTLV-1 clinic of the University Hospital in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. Patients with HTLV-1 associated myelopathy / tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP), who had evidence of other neurological diseases, diabetes mellitus or were pregnant were excluded from the study. The questionnaire SF-36 was used to evaluate quality of life and the questionnaire OAB-V8 was used to evaluate urinary symptoms. RESULTS: From the 118 individuals evaluated, 50 (42.4%) complained of urinary symptoms and 68 (57.6%) did not. Most participants were females. There was no difference between the groups regarding demographic variables. The group with symptoms showed significantly lower scores in all domains of the SF-36 questionnaire. The domains with greatest differences were vitality and general health state. CONCLUSIONS: Urinary symptoms negatively influence the quality of life of individuals infected with HTLV-1.