Treatment of HTLV-I-associated myelopathy with high-dose intravenous gammaglobulin

Summary Fourteen patients with HTLV-1-associated myelopathy were treated with high-dose intravenous gammaglobulin (IVGG). Ten received 10 g/day of IVGG and 4 received 400 mg/kg of body-weight/day of IVGG for 5 consecutive days. Improvement of spastic paraparesis was observed in 10 within 7 days of the commencement of IVGG. The therapeutic effects were sustained for more than 3 weeks in some patients. There were no side effects. Analysis of factors of relevance to the clinical improvement with IVGG showed that the beneficial response was preferentially found in patients having a high CSF titre of anti-HTLV-I antibodies, a high CSF IgG level and a marked brain MRI abnormality.