[Lack of air conditioning and mycotoxin poisoning are basic co-factors in tropical spastic paraparesis]. / La falta de refrigeración y la intoxicación por micotoxinas son cofactores fundamentales en la paraparesia espástica tropical.

INTRODUCTION: Chronic idiopathic spastic paraparesis (CHISPA) have been associated to HTLV-I virus infection, and unknown environmental factors have been suggested to play a role in its pathogenesis. METHOD: Based in our previous studies we wanted to know if the lack of refrigerators and the mycotoxin contamination of food might have any relationship with the presence of CHISPA in patients living at southeastern Colombia. RESULTS: Interestingly only four out of 15 patients with CHISPA had some method of refrigeration, in, 14 out of these 15 patients at least a metabolite of Fusarium was detected. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that mycotoxins found in the urine samples of these patients are immunosuppressors and demyelinating allow us to suggest that these toxins could be the most important environmental cofactors leading to the susceptible people to the clinically established disease.