Champs APS, et al. - Researchers assessed human T-lymphotropic virus type 1-associated myelopathy/tropical spastic paraparesis (HAM/TSP) patients with healthy controls regarding cognitive performance. In addition, they investigated how cognitive performance, proviral load and blood inflammatory markers are related. They performed comprehensive clinical, cognitive and functional evaluation on 83 patients fulfilling diagnostic criteria for HAM/TSP, as well as brain magnetic resonance imaging and determination of levels of IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α, immunoglobulins and human T-lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) proviral load in blood and cerebrospinal fluid. Findings revealed significant global cognitive impairment and deficits in executive function among HAM/TSP patients vs healthy subjects. Cognitive impairment seems to be a long-term clinical manifestation of HTLV-1 infection. The persistent inflammatory activity that is found in the disease seems to be linked to this cognitive impairment.