We reported a 54-year-old HTLV-I seropositive female patient with systemic lupus 
erythematosus (SLE), who developed migrating radiculopathy but without chronic 
progressive myelopathy. She occasionally noticed butterfly rash and 
photosensitivity of the skin as well as painful episodes in different joints for 
10 years. She developed pins and needles sensation on her trunk a few days after 
she experienced lumbago with abrupt onset. Neurological examinations revealed 
normal muscular strength, exaggerated deep tendon reflexes without Babinski 
signs, and dysesthesia on her upper extremities and the trunk. The latter 
symptom showed a segmental distribution of spinal nerve roots. And during the 
course of the disease, it migrated in accord with a radicular pattern. This 
sensory disturbance was fairly responsive to corticosteroid treatment. The 
spinal tap yielded clear cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) which showed mononuclear 
pleocytosis (16/mm3) with predominance of CD8+ cytotoxic cells and a positive 
result for anti-HTLV-I antibody. A neurological status deteriorated in parallel 
with non-neurological symptoms as SLE, when the patient had discontinued 
corticosteroids in a tapering course by herself. We postulate that HTLV-I 
infection in this patient modulated original autoimmune reactions as SLE, which 
led to manifestation of migrating radiculopathy possibly due to autoimmunity 
against ganglion cells. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of migrating 
radiculopathy in an SLE patient associated with HTLV-I infection.