Development of HTLV-I-associated myelopathy after blood transfusion in a patient with aplastic anemia and a recipient of a renal transplant.

We report the development of rapid progressive HTLV-I-associated myelopathy (HAM) after blood transfusion in two immunosuppressed patients, one of whom had aplastic anemia and the other was the recipient of a renal transplant receiving immunosuppressive chemotherapy. Spastic paraparesis developed 11 or 16 months after transfusion and rapidly progressed to a wheelchair-bound state. The present 2 cases suggest that the coexistent immunosuppression may play an important role in the rapid development of HAM in transfusion-acquired cases.